Dragon's Breath Quest
by Deej1
Summary: DND Movie fanfic where Ridley and his group are transported to another land and must save the fabled Dragon's Breath. (Now travels continue in "Quest to Slay the Serpent!")
1. Where the Heck Are We?

DND1 

Disclaimer:

The Dungeons & Dragons movie idea, and the characters from the movie (Ridley, Marina, Norda, Elwood & Snails, and Savina/Profion/Damodar - though they are only mentioned in passing here) do not belong to me.

Where the heck are we? 

A noisy babble of excited voices filtered slowly into Ridley s ears causing him to screw up his nose and attempt to open his sleep filled eyes. His brain was foggy, too foggy to think. What was that? What was happening? Where was he?

The last question brought him to full awareness and he blinked his eyes open in an attempt to take in the surroundings. Something large and wooden and box-like was staring him back in the face. He focused in on it in perspective to the hard gray surface behind it.

Yes, it was large and wooden and box-like, mainly because it was a large wooden box.

Crate, anyway, and a whole bunch of them were piled up against the previously mentioned gray wall overflowing with a rather colourful display of rubbish and smelling distinctly similar to human waste. Ridley rather quickly screwed up his nose again.

He rolled up from where he d been lying on the cold, hard ground and for the first time noticed he wasn t alone. That was reassuring. To his far left, and down a little, Elwood lay slumped against the opposite alleyway wall. He rocked a little and mumbled something about orcs in his sleep that sounded like a rude joke. Further up was Norda, lying on her back with one armoured knee slightly raised towards the sky. Her head rested slightly on its side and the eyes behind her eyelids flickered agitatedly in dream also.

To his immediate left, was Marina. She was stretched out on her side facing away from him; one arm curled around her head from the front as her brown hair fell disorderedly to the ground.

In that moment, Ridley s flashing recollection of events prior to this strange awakening finally reached his last concrete memory before now He had been in the cemetery with the three comrades around him. They had pledged themselves as a group, and for a moment he d felt something strange pull at him, as though this were right. This was meant to be.

Wherever this feeling was now, it was not with him. It had faded during sleep leaving him lost and confused and no longer in the cemetery. 

The noise he heard was now recogniseable as the cry of hawkers, the reply of buyers and the babble of gossip that accompanied most marketplaces. They were in a marketplace somewhere but where.

At that moment, Norda herself awoke with a quiet moan. She looked at him silently for a moment, then reached across and shook Marina s shoulders gently to wake the mage also.

"Where are we?" the mage asked in confusion as she came too, taking in her surroundings. She too, was going through the same mental memory process Ridley had just completed.

"I don t know," he replied, looking around the alleyway hoping it may provide some answers and double checking there were no undesirable onlookers. The conversation ended for that moment, as they came to a silent agreement that it was best to be a fully functioning company before continuing. 

It took the three of them a great effort of shaking to wake Elwood. Meanwhile he continued his mumbles, frequently mentioning orcs, axes and ale, though little more of his speech was comprehensible.

When he did, finally, wake up, he leapt to suddenly, sending the three almost sprawling backwards, and raised his battle-axe defensively in the air. As he looked out, it occurred to Elwood that there were, actually, no opponents standing in front of him to do battle with. For a moment he thought proudly that surely this must be because he had already gloriously defeated such an opponent, until he saw mage and thief fallen on top of each other and Norda standing a little way to his left.

"What are you doing on the ground?" he demanded grumpily of Ridley and Marina as he lowered his battle axe, disappointed that, in fact, he had not and was not getting the chance to disembowel an adversary of some description.

Marina threw the dwarf a disgusted look and pushed herself up from where she d fallen into Ridley. Ridley stood himself a moment later. Elwood merely grunted and looked from side to side, up and down the alleyway suspiciously.

"Where are we?" he growled.


	2. Tavern Visitors

Tavern Visitors 

Tavern Visitors. 

Jereez leaned her petite frame across the top of the bar in the Devil's Grin Tavern, passing a customer their ale, and flashed her own broad smile that quite possibly gave the bar its name.

"Knock yourself out," she encouraged the orc fiendishly, her eyes dancing excitedly as she did so. As the orc's large green body bumbled awkwardly out of the way, Jereez noticed something a little different at the entrance of the tavern she owned Newcomers, not just to the bar, but to the area also. She could tell, if not in the clothes they wore, just by the way they walked and looked around the tavern as they eyed up the establishment.

Newcomers were the best kind of people to look out for. Occasionally they were actually interesting, and in the majority of the time when they weren't, they were gullible, easy pickings.

She drummed her fingers across the bar top and eyed the group like a hawk. There were four of them; a motley bunch. Towards the front was a youthful human male, brown-haired not bad. She raised an eyebrow and moved on.

A human woman about the same age stood close by him. Close, definitely, there was something there, between those two. Jereez quickly caught the offending smell of human magic radiating from the woman mage. She screwed up her nose.

The other two members of the group were equally intriguing. There was a rather large, well-built but grubby dwarf wielding a battle-axe to fit his size and in contrast nearby stood a calm, collected female elf with dark skin. She had the kind of look in her eyes that insinuated she never stopped collecting, compiling and analyzing the data stream of information she was accumulating from her surroundings.

The four of them had stopped uncertainly near the bar entrance as thought trying to absorb information from the rambunctious crowd bustling through. Then, silently, the human male turned and led the group towards the rear of the tavern. But not before Jereez caught sight of something that made her eyes sparkle further.

As he turned, the man s cloak billowed just slightly, enough for Jereez to catch site of the glittering of the largest gem she d possibly ever laid her eyes upon. Her mouth dropped, her heartbeat slowed and her breath became a gasp. Jackpot! Kaching, Kaching! You could almost see gold coins in her eyes.

Then the beautiful object was gone, once again covered by the cloak as its possessor moved away deeper into the crowd.

Behind her, Jereez felt the entrance of another man and reached behind her to grip his arm tightly. He was nearly a head and a half taller than her, lean, with dark hair, equally dark goatee and a thief's shifty glance. He looked surprised that Jereez had noticed him there, sneaking up on her.

"Damon," she told him as she squeezed his wrist firmly, "I think I'm in love!"


	3. The Big Spill

The Big Spill 

The Big Spill. 

"Well, I have been known to elicit such a response in a woman but " Damon replied sarcastically in his low whispering, raspy sort of voice. Jereez immediately dropped Damon s wrist as though he were a leper.

"Not you," she said exasperatedly, "that you saw it, didn t you? Tell me you saw it!" She turned to Damon, a man Jereez had known for quite a few years now. Damon was a human. A human male who claimed to be a bard, though anyone who truly knew Damon knew that, as talented as he was, he didn t give a halfling s little toe about music. Damon s real passion coincided quite closely with one of Jereez s own money and gems and other expensive, glittery items. It was that shared enthusiasm, and that shared enthusiasm alone that kept them in each other s company.

Aside from money, Damon liked ale and women, which one might think would also closely correlate with Jereez, being a woman who owned a bar after all. However somehow, it was more of a sore point. Or at least, for Jereez it was.

"Ok," Damon shrugged unconcernedly, "I saw it." He took another step forward to stand next to her at the bar, his surprise entrance obviously having been ruined now.

Between the two there had always been this odd competition; who s thieving skills could outdo the other. Usually this consisted of Damon attempting to display such skills against Jereez by picking her pockets, or sneaking up on her, or a multitude of other ways, and Jereez catching him before he could complete the task. This contest was never directly vocalised, as though each of them were trying to pretend they weren t doing any such thing, though occasionally Jereez was prone to snide remarks.

"Really?" Jereez replied distractedly, still staring out into the crowd hoping to catch another sight of the stranger and his industrial size gem.

"No." Jereez turned to Damon and rolled her eyes at the slight arrogant smile flickering at the corners of his mouth.

"What kind of a thief are you!?" she demanded, "It was bigger than my " she rolled her hand into a fist and held it up gently before hesitating. Heck, why tell him about it! If she did, she d only have to share when she 

"You know what," she told him, lowering the fist, "It s not important Not important at all," she smiled roguishly, "I think its time for a song." Damon immediately accepted the cue; there was always the prospect of a few more coins to line his pockets when he sang.

He did a pass on the harp today and pulled out a strange box-like stringed instrument from its leaning position against the bar then threaded his way out into the middle of the crowd and sat himself on a chair. Damon strummed a few notes to test the instrument then, when he was satisfied, began one his more common melodies and lifted his voice up to join the music. As soon as he started singing, Damon s raspy voice disappeared into a quite gifted music voice.

This, of course, drew the majority of the bar s attention to Damon. Several groups continued their chatter on regardless, but the bulk of them dropped their noisy antics to listen, or at least pay half their attention towards it.

Jereez gave the scene a satisfied glance before she began to weave her way through the crowd to the area she d last spotted the group of newcomers. From that vantage point she could finally see them, seated in the corner, deep in discussion and continuing to randomly give the bar scene strange uncertain glances. They were only partially drawn by the music, seeming to be more concerned for their own discussion.

It was enough for Jereez. Hastily she grabbed a couple of full mugs from a nearby barmaid, sloshing it over the rim a little absentmindedly, and began to walk towards the table holding the newcomers.

Just as Jereez was nearing the group she clumsily caught her foot on the edge of the human male s chair and stumbled forward, spilling ale over him as she went. He stood up dripping ale as Jereez recovered from her stumble.

"I I m sooo sorry," she stammered embarrassedly to him, "I can t believe I was so clumsy! Here let me!"

"No it s alrigh " he began to protest as she headed towards him but it was already too late, as Jereez was busily dabbing at his clothes with the bar-top rag that was always tucked in at her waist. He looked just as embarrassed now as Jereez had a moment before. Behind her, a barmaid was already attending to the spilt ale. Jereez dabbed a few more times.

"I really am sorry," she apologised again, then turned to the barmaid behind her, "Lain, get these nice folks some drinks on the house." She made a big deal about winking at the barmaid, which the newcomers would connect to the free ale, but which the barmaid caught as a signal. It was a "you know what to do, take care of my bar while I m gone" sign. It would not be the first time Jereez had used such a sign.

The barmaid shrugged and nodded before carting off the mugs. She was used to Jereez s strange behaviour. Jereez turned back to the group.

"Well folks," she told them, "I better be going, please enjoy your drinks " She left them, dumfounded, and hurriedly filtered her way back through the crowd, passing Damon still singing, as she made her way to the entrance. A huge grin plastered itself across her face she couldn t help it. She ran her hands over the smooth surface of the most prized possession she d ever had the chance of holding.

Back at the table, Elwood growled angrily, "What drinks!?" He stared at the tabletop as though it might suddenly sprout mugs of ale, "We don t have any yet!"


	4. Enter Evil

Enter Evil 

Enter Evil. 

Lauthal bobbed her right foot gently over the edge of the long plush red couch she was lying across and held a bunch of grapes above her mouth to bite one off. She was decked out in a long silky blue gown that matched the sky blue of her glittering eyes. Upon her head, golden ringlets fell perfectly around the sparkling silver tiara she wore, that one could see their own reflection in when looking at its surface. A deep red diamond-shaped stone hung down from the tiara over Lauthal's forehead. Besides this, a vast selection of silver bracelets wound their way up her wrists and a variety of silver rings decorated her fingers. There were small golden bells hanging from the corners of her dress that tinkled musically when she moved.

At the moment she sat there contentedly, doing little more than appreciating her own beauty and prominence. She was Lauthal, Empress, and no menial task was fit for her hands. Her beautiful silky smooth amazing, perfect, wonderful, brilliant, super, faultless, breathtaking hands. Lauthal studied them in awe for a few more moments, before returning to her task of eating grapes.

At that moment, the large, arched double doors at the end of Lauthal's room burst open and a small array of figures began to march forward across the blood red carpets towards her. There were about six of them, one in the lead with the other five following in a sort of pentagon formation. 

Their journey towards her forced them past Lauthal's collection of strange artifacts ranging from a giant stuffed brown bear, crystals balls and her personal favourite, an oversized guillotine. But none of these items fazed the group heading towards her as much as the sudden appearance of a small gray fluffy muff of hair. 

The small dog, Pepita, gave the group a high-pitched agitated bark and they all immediately stopped in their tracks. The little dog only got more aggravated and began to bark so violently and rapidly that its entire body shook in little bounces across the floor.

The pained look that fell across the leader of the newcomers entering Lauthal's room amused her so that she let out a light glittery laugh that filtered across the room and seemed to ring through the walls and columns supporting it.

"Pepita," she called the tiny dog, "they re not worth your time." The dog gave the group a disdainful look before turning and leaping up beside its mistress. Lauthal stroked a hand through its long silky hair and dropped the bunch of grapes into a nearby fruit bowl sitting upon a short oriental table next to her couch.

"Well, Raelis" she addressed the leader of the group, a tall, pale, weedy man with unkempt blonde hair hanging craggily around his face. There were dark rings under his eyes and a horrible evil steely depth within them. 

All in all, his disturbing appearance only made her look like even more like a goddess. Well, who's to say she could be a goddess. Lauthal smiled pleasantly and would have primped her feathers had she had any.

Behind him were a selection of Lauthal's advisors, mostly weak old gray men with long beards whose main purpose was to agree with her, and two of her soldiers decked out in silver plate mail.

"You've returned," she continued to the man in front of her, "I assume you must have good news." He would not have returned without it. It would have only given her an excuse to use that favourite contraption of hers, the thrill of heads rolling. Her nostrils flared in anticipation.

"Indeed," the man replied, taking a sweeping bow as a gesture of his insignificance beside her, "I have the information you desire, Mistress I know where you can find the Dragon's breath." Raelis sounded impressed with himself too impressed. Lauthal decided she would have to take him down a notch or two.

"Know where it is!" she told her underling coldly, sitting up, "I'd expected you would have brought it to me by now, what with all the time it took you." However, Lauthal could barely contain her excitement, her whole body quivered deliriously, her hand resting on the small dog beside her with its head hanging boredly over the edge of the couch. Raelis did not reply, but simply gazed back at his Mistress with soulless eyes.

"Well?" Lauthal finally barked, breaking the silence, "where is it!?" Lauthal glared out angrily, and for a moment Raelis hesitated.

"Mistress," he finally replied, slowly, "the Dragon's breath can only be taken, in physical form, from the mouth of a dragon From the mouth of one dragon, the oldest known alive." Lauthal brightened slightly.

"Perfect," she said enthusiastically, "I just felt like killing something. Let's go." She looked out expectantly and Pepita raised her head in vague interest, but as soon as she had spoken, the advisors standing behind Raelis had leapt into a dialogue of concerned whispers between themselves.

"Uh, Mistress," Raelis interrupted, "this dragon lives in the DarkVeil Forest " He drifted off mid-sentence as Lauthal s features contorted demonically.

"The DarkVeil...," she repeated, muttering. They all knew what that meant, and likely it shook every man in the room with fright, except, perhaps, Raelis himself. And Lauthal. Of course, her very innards were quaking like jelly, but she was not about to let these fools know that and besides, what did she have to fear? She had armies of soldiers to sacrifice themselves for her life.

No forest was going to scare her into submission, filled with the souls of the dead or not. After all, it was just trees!

"Did you have a point?" she demanded frostily of her inferior, doing her best to maintain her collected fae. Lauthal may not have known it, but Raelis could see right through her as though she were clear as glass. He knew enough of the verbal and physical cues around the Empress to judge what she really meant, he could read between the lines, not like the idiots standing behind him as a bunch of clucking chickens. The forest was dangerous, a suicide mission he was certain, but pointing that out to the Empress would only anger her, as it would endanger the impression she liked to believe people held of her strong, unfearing and unrelenting, but also dangerously beautiful.

"The fae," he pointed out instead, "may not appreciate our intrusion onto their land." That was a more reasonable argument. The Empress would never accept, even if she did believe that the DarkVeil forest was inhabited by the souls of the dead, that they would be something to fear. But the fae yes the fae were a concern, for they were certainly powerful. However, it was not their threat to the Lauthal's empire that he was pointing out, but that the fae were linked to something Lauthal needed more than her empire. If the fae chose to withdraw their, so far, unbiased support, Lauthal would no longer receive the powdered fae dust that sustained her.

This suggestion caused Lauthal to appear a little more contemplative than she had a moment earlier with her brash decision-making.

Lauthal tossed about the possibilities for a moment. On the one hand, if she lost the ability to trade with the fae for fae dust, she was not likely to live long. On the other hand, if she gained access to the Dragon's breath if she held that power, well, she wouldn't need their cooperation anyway. She could take whatever she wanted, no one would be able to stop her. She would, essentially, be a goddess. The thought inspired wicked, demonic smiles and a bright spark of greed in her eyes. A hazy delighted expression lit her face.

"Maybe I can hit two dwarves with one intelligent thought," she mused, "You, there," Lauthal extended a long finger with a perfectly manicured nail and pointed to one of her advisors standing behind Raelis. The advisor looked up with wide, almost frightened eyes and seemed to mouth, "Me!?"

"Yes you," Lauthal barked, "what s you name? Maja Mojo "

"Hun," the advisor murmured meekly as he shuffled forward slightly.

"Whatever," Lauthal replied in a bored tone, "tell me, how is that pathetic tavern of my sister's doing?" Hun, the advisor, hesitated in fright, for he had the choice now between lying to Lauthal and being punished for it, or informing her exactly how the Devil's Grin Tavern was the most popular establishment in all her realm and suffering from an extreme case of dismember the messenger. He felt his knees shaking at the thought.

"Whatever," Lauthal repeated before the advisor could get a chance to reply, saving his skin, "it doesn't matter I have an idea. Brilliant, of course," she dug her fingers into the soft covering of the couch and massaged it violently, as she often did when thinking about her sister, and managed a wicked smile, "Maja whatever-your-name-is, contact my spies and troublemakers on my sister. We're going to make sure the fae believe she's the one interested in trespassing on their land." With any luck, the fae would stop trading fae dust with Jereez instead and Jez would die a long, slow, painful, crippling, tormented death, preferably from some foreign disease that ate away at one's skin first.

It was a pleasant thought.


	5. Begin the Chase

Author's notes: 

Author's notes:

Sorry folks, I had some bizarre problems trying to get part 3 to work, but it should be right now.

Also I wanted to add that I have never played DND and my only knowledge of it and its rules are from Baldur's Gate. In fact, most of what I have written and made up possibly goes against these rules, if you have a problem with this don't read it. I wrote it for story only. If I write more, I may make a bigger effort to follow (what I know of) DND.

Begin the Chase. 

Ridley sat back down at the table uncomfortably; he was still damp and now he smelled like ale.

"I don't suppose anyone knows where we are yet?" he asked the other three, leaning across the table. Norda looked back at him over the top of one her maps they'd spread out across the table to study. So far they'd been unsuccessful in placing themselves on any of the maps between them, which was disconcerting.

"No," the elf replied calmly with a hint of amusement in her voice, "but I believe we were just robbed."

"What?" Ridley replied in surprise and Elwood instinctively began to reach for his battle-axe.

"The woman who just bumped into you," Norda explained, "picked your pockets." Ridley looked slightly shocked. After all, he was the thief here. People didn't pick his pockets he picked theirs. Or, at least, he used to.

"That's impossible," he protested and began digging into his pockets, "see, I still have my money." He jiggled the money pouch victoriously for a moment, then frowned, and frantically began searching through his multitude of pockets.

"The dragons eye!" he exclaimed as his search proved fruitless. Norda raised an eyebrow in her own vague motion of I told you so .

"I didn't know you even had it with you," Marina voiced in concern, "didn't we leave it in the cemetery?"

Ridley shook his head, "No, I had it, but I... I didn't have the time to put it away." He was still pulling bizarre objects out of his pockets in the hope of finding the overly sized gem in the deep corners of a pouch too small to fit it. A lock-pick kit, string, a metal hook and other items began to pile up on the table. Marina looked disappointed

"Do we really need it?" she asked uncertainly, already knowing what the answer was.

"I can think of two good reasons why we would," Norda replied, watching Ridley search, "firstly, should our coins be unacceptable here as local currency, it would be useful for acquiring some More importantly, should the dragon's eye be connected to our teleportation here, it would most likely also be connected to our teleportation home." It didn't do much to reassure Marina's downcast look. Ridley finally gave up searching and began to pick up his enormous amount of junk, which had surprisingly once fitted onto his person.

"What are we going to do?" Marina asked, looking to Ridley, and then Norda. Elwood had obviously already decided that whatever it was, it was going to require his weapon. The dwarf grunted discontentedly, he might not have been so grumpy if he'd actually gotten that ale. At that moment, one of the numerous barmaids trotted past a few tables over. Ridley immediately stalked over and pounced on her, taking a hold of her arm.

"Where'd that woman go?" he demanded of the barmaid, eyes roaming the bar for the thief.

"Excuse me?" the barmaid replied ultra sweetly, and blinked her eyelids as though she weren't actually in possession of a single brain cell, but shared it with her best friend. Perhaps she shared it with all the other barmaids.

"The woman," Ridley pressed, "short, with dark hair " The woman squeezed out a forced smile.

"I'm sorry Sir, I just serve the drinks, I don't keep track of the patrons," she told him, though she knew perfectly well what he was alluding to. 

"No, she wasn't a customer, she was working here she…" Ridley spotted Lain, "her," he accused, pointing a finger at the barmaid who had been cleaning up the spilt ale earlier, "she knows what I'm talking about." Lain looked up from the table she was serving ale at, spotted the disturbance and her eyes widened. Immediately she turned away and disappeared into the crowd before Ridley could catch her too. The barmaid facing Ridley shrugged.

"We don't encourage disturbances in our bar," she told Ridley darkly, "perhaps it would simply be better for everyone if you left." Ridley felt growingly annoyed at the evasive action of these barmaids, but before he could argue, Elwood stepped up beside him, battle-axe help up slightly threateningly. The barmaid eyed the dwarf up calmly.

"Please," she told the dwarf a little sarcastically, and drew away the slit in her long drab brown skirt to reveal a lengthy, but sturdy saber sheathed at her thigh.

"There are seven more barmaids working in this establishment, all of who are equally proficient," she added.

"She's right," Norda spoke up, "now is not the time Whoever it was will soon know that we don't take kindly to being stolen from." The barmaid took one look at each of them, then hurried off leaving the group standing there, still wondering what to do.

However she had barely gone one minute before another voice spoke up to the right of the group and a heavily cloaked figure stepped out from the shadows.

"You want to know where that woman went?" Nothing could be seen of the person in the cloak, but its voice was horribly whispery, like a snake.

"Do you know something you could tell us?" Norda inquired of the stranger, who seemed to sway on the spot in a way that was almost hypnotising.

"Yessss, I could help you," it replied slitheringly, and raised its hands to the sides of it head. As it did so, the cloak around its hands fell slightly down to its wrists, revealing long talon like claws for fingers and causing the party's eyebrows to raise considerably.

As the person/creature, whatever it was, pressed its fingers/talons to, presumably where its forehead would be, a chanting hiss rose out from behind the cloak.

"I don't like this," Marina whispered to Ridley in concern. She was getting horrible vibes from this creature that gave her goose bumps and sent shudders up her back. Something felt dark, and possibly evil about it. Suddenly the creature completely stopped.

"Ssssshe issss to the northwessst of the cccity, riding a large brown horse. Sssshe issss heading towardssss the foresst." The creature dropped its arms and paused as the group digested this information, sending silent message to each other through their eyes.

"I'm afraid we're a little new in town," Marina finally confessed and received a bothered look from Ridley. That was not the kind of information one should simply be giving away, it was like asking someone to take advantage of you. The stranger did not seem surprised by the information, however.

"Of courssse," came the hissed reply, "I can sssupply you with a map, if you'd like." Marina didn't have the courage to tell the stranger that, in actual fact, she didn't want to accept anything from it. She did nothing to stop the creature from reaching a hand, once again revealing the talons, into his cloak and pulling out a long rolled up piece of parchment. The stranger held it out to her but the talons and the horrible feeling emanating from the stranger turned her off accepting it, until, after a moment of stillness, Ridley took the parchment himself.

"Good luckkk," the creature replied then, obviously feeling its business was done, began drawing back into the shadows.

"I really don't like this," Marina repeated, eyeing the map Ridley had unrolled and was studying, as though it might leap up and begin strangling one member, or perhaps all of the group.

"No," Ridley agreed, surprising her, "nothing comes for free, and he didn't ask for anything in return." He nodded a head in the direction of where the stranger had disappeared.

"It doesn't matter," Norda told them. She took the top end of the map and began rolling it up and out of Ridley's grasp whilst he was still in the process of inspecting it. Ridley thought it was strange that he couldn't recognise a single detail on the parchment.

"Assuming we're not being lead on a wild goblin chase," the elf continued, "I can track the thief, especially if she's riding." She directed the group back out into the marketplace that stood outside the Devil's Grin tavern, then, taking a look up into the sky, immediately set off in a particular direction, Ridley, Marina and Elwood following behind her.


	6. Irritating Companions

Irritating Companions. 

Jereez rode one her horses out of the city happily, every now again reaching into her pockets to brush her fingers across the smooth surface of the beautiful artifact she had been so successful in acquiring . Damn she was good! Real good! She gave the rest of the world a self-satisfied smirk. Now all she had to do was hide out while the bar was presumably searched then, when the strangers she'd acquired from finally gave up and left the region, she'd return a hundred, nay a thousand times richer than before.

Life was good.

There was a thud on the ground behind her and Jereez turned in surprise to see a second horse following not too far behind her, and catching up. Agitatedly, she recognised its rider as Damon. He'd opted to carry the box-like stringed instrument with him, attached to the side of his horse in a way that should protect it from too much harm.

"Hey there," he called as he approached, "nice day for a ride." He was right, it was a beautiful, sunny day and the outskirts of the forest seem rather peaceful and untouched, but she didn't care. Damon drew up beside her.

"What are you doing?" Jereez demanded, peeved that her lovely solitude was being disturbed, by Damon of all people. Damon simply shrugged.

"Came for my half," he told her, quickly flashing a broad grin in her direction. Jereez did not smile in response.

"Your ha- your half of what," she amended quickly before she gave away that she knew what he was referring to. The only thing she couldn't understand, was how he knew. He must have caught on earlier in the bar, when she'd told him to perform, she decided.

"My half of the profits," Damon explained and reached unabashedly across the small gap between them into Jereez s cloak and drew forward the pocket she'd been keeping the gem in. She glanced away, avoiding looking at the thief in annoyance. He knew her way too well. She was going to have to change her clothes so that he couldn't find her secret pouches. Damon jiggled the pocket up and down and looked impressed.

"You're right," he said in an equally impressed tone, "it is as big as your fist." Jereez frowned and took the pouch from out of his reach.

"It's not that big," she disagreed discontentedly. She'd been hoping to have the gem all to herself.

"It's pretty big," Damon counteracted, leaning back on his horse, "If we sell it in Parthax we could get a higher price for it."

"We?" Jereez blurted in response. She urged her horse forward a little faster. Of course, it had been silly of her to believe she could be a better con artist than life just when you thought you'd gotten away with the world scot free, you were disastrously reminded that you didn't really come out with the upper hand. 

"Yeah," Damon encouraged, "you, me, and my half."

"Hey I saw it, and I took it!" Jereez protested, holding the dazzling object just a little bit closer to her body.

"And I provided a distraction." Damon didn't seem particularly concerned, he probably knew she would give in.

"Ten percent," Jereez bargained, realising that if he was that confident, she probably wasn't going to be able to talk him out of it. The last thing she needed was Damon informing the people she'd stolen from exactly where she currently was, and she didn't doubt he'd do it if she didn't give him some of the profits.

"Forty," Damon argued, his eyes lighting up at the prospect.

"Thirty," Jereez raised her price substantially in the desire to end this bargaining session quickly.

"Done!" She was surprised he hadn't pushed it further, but pleased that it was the end. Possibly he recognised that thirty percent of the profits was still going to be enough to keep him deliriously happy for the next fifty years of his life, which, for a human, was essentially the rest of his life.

"Where we headed Jez?" Damon asked, nodded to the road ahead and Jereez paused before she answered. He would not be happy with the real answer to that question.

"Just into the woods," she replied vaguely, " I thought I'd hide out in the woods." Damon appeared to accept it as a reasonable reply.


	7. Dastardly Deeds

Dastardly Deeds. 

Lauthal lifted herself delightedly into the saddle of a gloriously decorated white mare. Royal purple with gold trimmings as decoration made the necessary saddling appear flashy, but luxurious, perfect for someone as beautiful as herself. 

To her right, Raelis and a vast selection of proficient soldiers were preparing themselves for the journey ahead. Of course, none of them had horses; she was making them walk.

Suddenly there was a shout in the distance on her left and the advisor she'd spoken to earlier in the hall could be seen jogging awkwardly towards her. He reached Lauthal red faced and puffing madly, the run had been too much for his age and tubby weight.

"Empress," he huffed, "Your Greatness...." Evidently he couldn't even get a complete sentence out.

"What is it?" she snapped back, picking up the purple laced reigns in her hands, "I haven't got all day. You can be incompetent on your own time, not on mine!"

"Of… of course," the advisor replied, catching his breath, "please forgive me Your Excellence." Lauthal rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Your Perfectness," the advisor continued, "one of your spies on your sister has something important to say. I thought you should hear it before you left." Lauthal considered it for a moment with a distasteful look on her face. Well, it couldn't hurt. If it was bad news, it would send her off on her journey feeling even better. If it was good, well, then she'd be able to leave orders to turn it bad, and go off on her journey feeling even better.

"Alright," she agreed super sweetly, "but quickly, the more time I spend here, the less of that time I spend travelling to my Dragon's breath, and you know how that can make me cranky." She tugged tightly on the reins with a dark look in her eyes, causing the horse to whinny in shock.

"Y-yes, Empress," the advisor stammered, and indicated that a cloaked figure nearby should step forward and address the blonde-haired beauty. Immediately the spy stepped forward and drew back its hood, revealing a snake-like face and claw-like hands.

"Misssstressss," the creature hissed to her and bowed its head forward causing Lauthal to smile sweetly once again.

"Yes, you may tell me your information," she told the spy regally and it lifted its ugly snake features to address her.

"Your sssissster is heading towardssss the woodssss in the posssssesssssion of a rather large gemssstone," the creature hissed and blinked its reptilian eyes. Lauthal's pleased smile immediately dropped into a deadly glare and the top of her lip twitched in agitation.

"What?" she questioned through gritted teeth. Her nostrils flared and she began to mold the reigns aggressively between her fingers.

"Aaah," the snake sighed in exhale, "but I sent the original ownerssss in pursssuit," it explained, "they will not be to pleasssed when they finally catch up with her." Lauthal gave him a look of distaste, but it was slightly less fearful than her angry glare. She chewed on her bottom lip before replying.

"I want her to be the one held responsible should the fae discover we've trespassed on their land, do you hear me," she growled, infuriated, "when we go in, I want the fae to be looking in the opposite direction. I want them to be watching the distraction my sister is going to provide them with, you understand!?"

"Of courrsssssse," the snake creature hissed in reply, "I will endeavor to do assss you have commanded, Misssstressss."

"Of course you will, do whatever you have to," Lauthal replied distractedly. She was suddenly bored with this conversation, "now go away." She turned her attention back to her horse and soldiers and, with one flick of the reigns, urged her horse to leap forward. Soon... Very soon she would hold the power of the world within her grasp.


	8. Beginning the Chase 2

Beginning the Chase 2. 

Norda bent down and traced a hand across the horse shoeprint in the soft earth.

"We're getting close," she informed the others behind her and looked up the trail ahead. She'd been a little more worried when a second horse had joined up with the trail they were following earlier, and soon it seemed they would be facing these opponents. Mostly she was concerned that they were being set up in some way; either being lead on as a distraction as the real thief escaped, or lead into a trap.

So far, Norda believed, Ridley had been rather over-aggravated regarding their situation, considering where the majority of his own income came from. 

They continued on through the woods, but they only had to go a short distance when, through the trees, they spotted two horses walking leisurely alongside each other. The one on the right was brown, carrying a small woman with wild dark brown hair the pick-pocket herself. The second horse, on the left, was black and carried a slim man of average height and dark hair. From behind, Norda would not have recognised him except that a stringed musical instrument was tied to the side of his horse, which identified him as the bard she had just barely noticed from the same tavern.

Elwood was already taking out his battleaxe in delight and Norda lifted a finger to her mouth to quiet them. It would do no good if they gave away their position before they were too close, else the two riders would simply outride the four walkers and they'd never retrieve their stolen item.

The elf urged them towards her gently to discuss a plan now that their target was in sight.


	9. Confrontation

Confrontation.

Jereez and Damon were plodding along at a much slower pace now that they were deeper into the woods. It simply wasn't safe to ride at full speed through this area, where leaf litter could hide protruding tree stumps that had the possibility of tripping a horse and sending its rider flying. And Jereez knew for a fact that, no matter what she was occasionally inclined to insist, especially whilst under the influence of ale, she could not actually fly.

Fortunately now Damon was content to ride along in silence, which suited her just fine. Plus, if she'd had it her way, the amount of words that passed between them would have been a negative number, regardless of whether or not that was actually possible.

Just as they were heading across a small clearing back into the tree line, two figures suddenly stepped out ahead of them. They were just on either side of the two riders, so that effectively, the figures blocked their path.

It took Jereez only a moment to recognise the two humans as the ones she had taken the gem from. To her right was the male, and to the left the female mage.

Immediately she backed her horse up in an effort to turn around and bolt the other way, but as she did so, she noticed the elf and oversized dwarf standing behind them also. There was nowhere to run.

Ok, Jereez accepted that this was going to be an encounter in which she'd have to rely on her wits to pull her through. Of course, it couldn't hurt that she would temporarily relocate her wits to her knives. She reached for them slowly. It could be astounding how often it came in handy to be proficient in at least one weapon when running a bar. 

"Can I help you nice folks? A little lost are we?" she asked sugar sweetly.

"Give us back what is rightfully ours," the human mage replied instantly in a defiant tone. Well, at least she had a little spunk in her, but human mages and spirit could be a toxic combination to themselves as well as their opponents.

Jereez appeared to be thoughtfully pondering the statement for a moment, when really she was levering her weapon into a convenient position.

"Ah yes," she replied agreeably, "a most unfortunate misunderstanding that, but it does seem we may have reached an arrangement now." At that moment she whipped out two throwing knives, directing them towards Ridley. 

Before he could respond, Ridley found himself pinned by the shoulders of his clothes to the tree directly behind him. Marina's eyes widened and she moved to assist him, tugging at the knives in vain.

At the same time Jereez, followed by Damon, were slipping down from their horses. Jereez's main intention had been to immobilise the mage before she became more than a nuisance, however she was forced to duck as the dwarf's great axe swung towards her head. She leapt backwards in shock as he came forward again. On the other side of the clearing, Damon and the elf were battling it out with swords.

Fortunately for Jereez, the dwarf was much less agile than herself and she closed in on the mage with the dwarf bumbling along behind her.

"Marina!" the human male suddenly warned as he looked up and spotted Jereez moving in on them. Marina turned in shock to see the brown-haired thief heading towards her and hastily reached towards her pouch. Drawing out a large pinch of sorceror's dust, she blew it on the woman.

Jereez saw the dust coming but was unable to get out of the way before it hit her. She sneezed violently and threw herself to her left when she saw the dwarf's axe heading her way again, except that suddenly she couldn't move. Her entire body felt restricted, and as she looked down, Jereez realised she'd been wound up in a long coil of thick rope. Her arms were pinned to her sides. Looking up, she saw the axe still heading her way and just managed to bound out of the way as the dwarf's blade whistled past only inches away. Fortunately as soon as he noticed Jereez was pretty much incapacitated he no longer seemed as interested in decapitating her.

Instead he rerouted his focus to Damon who, not doing particularly well against the elf himself, noticed that suddenly the odds, if they hadn't been good before, were now substantially worse. He backed up away from the elf, lowering his sword as he went.

"Folks," he told the group with a not-to-convincing charming smile, "I'm sure we can work this out peacefully " Norda and Elwood stopped at a distance away from Damon but continued to hold their weapons threateningly towards him.

Jereez rolled her eyes, "Damon, I'm, stuck." She was attempting to cut the rope with another of the knives hidden on her body and within reach of her hands, but the enchanted cord refused to be scratched let alone sliced open.

Marina had turned back to her original task and finally succeeded in freeing Ridley from his restraints. The thief stepped forward and, reaching through the cords binding Jereez, dragged out the dragon's eye.

"I believe this is mine," he told her as he took it back and Jereez grimaced unhappily. Newcomers with brains that was unforeseeable.

Suddenly there was the sound of the ring of swords being drawn and a collection of bows being cocked. 

"I beg to differ," a clear, deep voice reverberated through the small clearing, and at that moment a whole collection of people stepped out through the trees surrounding the small area. There must have been about thirty of them, outnumbering the group nearly eight to one. Everyone in the clearing looked up in astonishment.

"I rather think that belongs to me now," the original voice explained as its owner, a slim, pale male elf stepped forward. He and his band wore brown and green colours to blend in with the forest, and whilst he was elvan, the rest of the group were a mixed blend. Mostly they were human, and also elvan, though there were a few halflings, dwarves and even a couple of orcs and a green faced goblin that snickered at the sight of the gem Ridley was holding.

The elvan leader held out his hand to the thief and Ridley had no choice but to hand the gem to him. There was no way his small party could take on the collection of warriors that now surrounded them. Of all the times to be hit by bandits.

The elf weighed up the object with an intrigued look and placed it deep within his brown jacket, then he looked back up again at the group of adventurers.

"Fellas," he waved to his band of followers, who immediately stepped forward and began restraining the group. Elwood struggled angrily whilst Norda calmly accepted that there was little she could do to change the situation. Marina defiantly shook off a hand as she was restrained. Then the elf stepped forward towards Jereez.

"Mantonus?" Jereez suddenly exclaimed, peering up, and an expression of delight slid across her face. The elf looked down on her neutrally for a moment, then his face suddenly broke out into a reciprocating smile.

"Jereez," he acknowledged and bent his knees slightly to stand face to face with her. 

Jereez moved through her bonds and winced a little, "Mantonus, you know I'd be a bit more welcoming, except that I'm kind of a little stuck."

"Of course," Mantonus chuckled and stood, clapping his hands. Immediately a small, cloaked chubby man stepped forward. He raised his hands, hummed to himself and Marina's coils slid away from Jereez's body easily. Jereez almost couldn't believe her good luck.

"I almost didn't think you'd make it in time," she confessed to Mantonus. Of all the good things that could possibly happen, the people she'd been coming to see had turned up just in time to save her.

"Thanx for saving me," she continued, "and my gem." She eyed his pockets hungrily but Mantonus appeared to ignore her comment. Jereez's smile faded slightly.

"You know me and my timing," he replied good-naturedly, "what about him?" He nodded a head towards Damon who was, as of yet, still unbound. 

Jereez turned and pondered the bard for a moment before a hint of amusement lit her eyes.

"Why not," she replied, "tie him up too." She shrugged, and grinned. Damon, on the other hand, looked unimpressed.


	10. Captured

Captured.

Ridley felt the tips of his ears burn with humiliation as he and his comrades were pushed and pestered forward on their way to the bandits' destination, presumably their camp. He couldn't help thinking now that the timing of this was too close to have been a coincidence, and that likely they had been set up from the start. He felt responsible for his friends, and what was worse, he didn't know what the bandits had planned for them.

And, of course, he'd lost possession of the dragon's eye again.

Their journey took some time, but he realised they must finally be close when the travelers passed a group of sentries, also wearing brown and green, whom nodded in acknowledgement as they passed by.

After that it was only a short walk, and suddenly they were in the middle of a medium sized camp filled with tents and a hut or two. There was a large clearing in the centre where a bonfire rose up with several people warming themselves, or food, upon it. Compared to the thirty who had surrounded his friends, there must have been another twenty or so in camp, wandering from tent to tent and occasionally looking up in vague interest as the troupe of prisoners were marched through.

They were taken to the far side of the bonfire, away from the tents, and pushed into a small prison of metal bars that looked to be a portable cage. The doors clanged shut on them, the key turned and suddenly they were left alone but for one guard who stood a few paces away, straying an eye to them from time to time.

Ridley, frustrated, tested the metal bars and then turned to face the strange man they'd been imprisoned with as thought struck him.

"You," he accused furiously, "you're connected to this somehow." Damon began to back up away from the rest of his prison mates as he realised he'd suddenly become the focus of their attention.

"Now, now," he soothed, "no need to get violent." The dwarf grunted and growled as if to exclaim otherwise. He looked just about ready to leap up and tear Damon's head from his body in one jerk.

"What are they going to do with us?" Marina suddenly asked. Her voice had lost its defiant tone and now seemed to be laced with traces of fear and uncertainty. The question, however, relaxed Damon slightly, his body loosening for a moment.

"Probably nothing," he replied calmly, though the question had not really been directed to him, nor anyone for that matter. He stroked his chin thoughtfully, "give us a scare, maybe, and dump us back in town tomorrow." Marina frowned, and Ridley couldn't help thinking that didn't seem too characteristic of bandits either.

"Why?" the mage asked doubtfully and Damon laughed.

"I know it might be hard to believe, what with all the Empress says about them, but they are good folk," he explained, "they don't like hurting people unnecessarily." He couldn't have been making it any clearer for them, however, because they all immediately frowned and looked puzzled.

"I don't remember the Empress having addressed the problem of bandits recently," Norda replied. She should know, she had, after all, been loyal to the throne for many years.

"Bandits!" Damon immediately exclaimed, staring around the group with an amused glint in his eye, "By Lord you folk really don t have a clue, do you. These folks aren't bandits, they're dissenters." 

"Dissenters?" Marina repeated in a questioning murmur. She was immediately worried that they'd fallen into the hands of those powerful folk who had followed Profion into battle against their Empress. These were not the kind of people she'd prefer to spend her time with right now.

"Mmmm," Damon encouraged, "rebels. People who don t believe Empress Lauthal should be on the throne, and who aren't afraid of fighting for it. Personally I," he said, peering around the camp as he did so, "would rather be safe than dead man walking."

"Empress Lauthal?" Marina copied again, "but Empress Savina is ruler of Izmer!" She sounded rather outraged, Damon merely blinked.

"What's an Izmer?" he asked dumfoundedly. 

"I don't think we're in Izmer anymore," Norda explained to the female mage gently at almost exactly the same time. There was a short moment of silence.

"We have to get out of here," Ridley finally said. He was hanging around the door to the cage and watching the guard in the hopes that he might have a chance of picking the lock. So far, it was not looking promising.

"You're telling me," Damon agreed whole-heartedly, "We shouldn't be here in the first place. I don't know what Jereez was thinking her sister won't be happy when she finds out, and she always has spies around, so she will find out. We'll probably be attacked before the night is out."

"Jereez? That s the woman who stole our gem?" Norda inquired with only a little intrigue. She'd lived long enough to know that the more informed one was of the situation, the better one's chances were in succeeding, or surviving in it.

"That s right," Damon replied, nodding. These people desperately needed clueing up. 

"Who's her sister?" Marina asked puzzledly and frowned, still not putting it all together.

"Who else?" Damon said distastefully, "Empress Lauthal." He almost wanted to wash his mouth out just mentioning the woman.

"She's related to your Empress!" Marina exclaimed a little sarcastically, not sounding particularly impressed. Damon decided not to deign it with a reply.

"We have to get the dragon's eye back," Ridley interrupted as though none of the conversation had actually been going on. Elwood grunted his agreement with that.

"What? That gem?" Damon commented, then laughed bitterly, "don't we all need that, eh!" Knowing his luck, he'd missed out now. Jereez would keep it to herself. Well, he supposed he'd just have to live without that thirty percent. Still, he felt overly mournful when thinking of all the wealth he nearly had.

"You don't understand," Marina lamented, "it may be our only way home." Damon hesitated for a moment then burst out into laughter.

"Oh, you folks really are the cream of the crop, aren't ya," he commented through the laughter, "and you almost had me going there for a moment. Nice story. Couldn't do it better myself." At least he'd been quickly cheered up. Damon winked at Marina who bristled angrily and averted her eyes.


	11. Dissenter's Camp

Dissenter's Camp. 

"It looks like you've got yourself a quaint little operation here," Jereez commented as she walked beside the elf Mantonus across the clearing at the centre of the camp towards the bonfire. He smiled wryly as she said it.

"This is just one of our moveable outcamps," he told her, causing Jereez to look slightly impressed, "we'll have to move it soon though, now that your friends have seen it." He nodded a head towards the cage holding Jereez's followers.

"Ah yes," she agreed, not really certain what more to say. She was mostly still grateful that Mantonus had arrived in time. It'd had been a long time since she'd seen him, or any of the rebels for that matter, and when she had, Mantonus had been far from the top of the list of members close to leadership. She hoped that didn't reflect her sister's impatience with the rebels. If only she wasn't such a closely watched target, Jereez might have allied herself with the rebels, as she had done early on. But sadly, she had quickly found that it had only lead to a higher death rate when she conspired with them. This was the first time in a few years that she had broken away from the decision to leave them well alone.

"Here," Mantonus said, taking a bowl from an attendant nearby and passing it on to Jereez. She peered into it for a moment and smiled oddly. The bowl was filled with a fine, light powdery pink dust.

"I didn't know you had trade with the fae," she commented, dipping a finger into the powder and putting it in her mouth to suck the fine grains off. It tingled in her mouth. Mantonus nodded.

"For a little while now," he explained, and began to seat himself on a log in front of the fire, "we realised they just might hold the key to defeating your sister. If we can build a good reputation with them, then perhaps we might show them the true ways of your sister and convince them to help us. But it's a long, difficult process of trust." He stirred the soup in his own bowl thoughtfully. Jereez suddenly moan in delight, having taken an entire spoonful of the fae dust she was consuming.

"Been a while since I had this stuff," she commented delightfully in an attempt to change the topic of conversation.

"It's in your sister's interest to keep your supply diminished, and your powers weak," Mantonus agreed and Jereez rolled her eyes.

"You know," she told him through mouthfuls, "I think I just remembered why I don't come here often." Mantonus looked intrigued.

"It's because every second sentence that's spoken contains the words 'your sister'. I mean, I know she's annoying and you're fighting a war of freedom and all, but, get a grip man." She squeezed his shoulder, convincing herself that she could so easily dismiss the situation.

"You can t ignore her," Mantonus replied intensely, his elvan tranquility concealing deeply routed emotion.

"I can try," Jereez disagreed, yawning and finishing her bowl in record time. Already she was beginning to feel a lot stronger than usual. Good stuff, that was. Mantonus pretended the imp had never said any such thing.

"I've heard some disturbing news Jereez," he continued.

"Oh, not disturbing news," Jereez replied sarcastically, "we _never_ get disturbing news!" She sighed at Mantonus disgruntled look, "What is it Mantonus? Wait, my sister..." She said the words at the same moment he did.

"Your sister," Mantonus raised an eyebrow, "she's getting close to finding the dragon's breath."

"Impossible," Jereez scoffed, "that's just a fairy tale." She found it hard to believe Mantonus was putting his faith in such information. How could he be taking it seriously?

"Exactly," the elf replied, "we believe she is intruding upon fae land, to steal it from a dragon atop the mountains in the DarkVeil Forest. She has to be stopped."

"Well, I think you have it all wrong," Jereez replied doubtfully, "my sister may be stupid, but she's not quite that stupid."

"I tell you what," Mantonus responded after a moment of silent contemplation, he pulled the bright red gem from inside his coat, "I'll give you this, if _after_ you've returned from investigating the rumours, and stopped your sister if they're true." Jereez s mouth dropped. All this time she d been pretty much betting Mantonus would give it to her, no questions asked. Now, in hindsight, that seemed a pretty stupid thing to believe.

"Oh, very cunning," she replied, "you've gotten trickier since last time I saw you," she paused, "ok, but I can't go by myself." Mantonus nodded and smiled a little slyly. He was about to solve two problems at once.

"You can take them with you," he told her, looking towards the prison cage then back to Jereez to gauge her reaction.

"You've got to be joking!" Jereez exclaimed indignantly, "they'll never agree to come with me." She was beginning to feel cornered again. Mantonus shrugged.

"Motivating them is not my problem," he told her and Jereez sighed, giving in.

"Ok," she agreed, "you've got a deal." She held out a hand to Mantonus to shake, and as he accepted it. Jereez pulled him into a friendlier hug, giving the elf a pat on the back. They had history, this was no time to get so business-like. Just then, a strange bird call whistled through the clearing. Suddenly everyone in the camp perked up expectantly, then began to rush around busily. 

"What was that?" Jereez asked in concern, pulling away from her old friend. 

Mantonus grimaced, "That was the sentry call," he explained, "we're being attacked." Jereez's eyes widened and she gripped his hand as though it were something to be crushed and then pummeled into the ground repetitively.

"Wha...?" she began to ask, but the elf interrupted her before she could reply. The camp was already a hive of activity. People were beginning to draw their weapons. The first aggressor stumbled his way past the sentries into the camp and immediately several rebels leapt upon him. Suddenly Jereez could smell burning.

"Hurry," Mantonus told the imp, pushing her toward the prison cage and trying to pull his hand from her iron grip.

"Get out of here," he told her seriously, looking deep into Jereez s eyes, "We can fend for ourselves, but you must stop your sister." Jereez though she might vomit up an icy mass of her inner trailings as she floundered towards the prison cage, ignoring the sounds of battle behind her.


	12. Blackmail

Blackmail.

Ridley and the rest of the group were standing as Jereez approached. They were looking out expectantly into the camp in an attempt to decipher exactly what was going on. Damon had resigned himself to leaning against the rear of the prison with an extremely concerned expression on his face. He was pretty certain he knew what was happening, and he didn't like at all. Their heads turned as Jereez came to a halt in front of the door.

She cast a look to the guard that had been assigned to watching the prisoners and it was apparently enough to convince him to leave the cage and run forward, pulling out his weapon ready, to assist his comrades in combat.

It was only just after he'd already departed that Jereez realised she didn't have the keys to open to lock on the cage. She'd have to improvise. Jereez began picking the lock with a combination of small pins she'd pulled from a fine bracelet she wore on her wrist.

"What are you doing?" the human male immediately leapt on her. Someone was feeling a bit threatened.

"Jereez," she replied as though she'd heard a different question, "pleased to meet you. My accomplice there, if he hasn't already introduced himself, is Damon." Damon perked up a little and appeared excited at the prospect of escaping the bars.

"Where are you taking us?" Marina added, watching as Jereez worked the difficult lock, chewing her bottom lip as she did so.

"You got a name Missy?" Jereez shot back immediately, looking up from her work temporarily. If she was going to have to put up with these people for a while, she was at least going to put up with them knowing their names.

"Marina." The mage blinked as though it had never occurred to her that Jereez could want to know her name.

"Well, Marina," Jereez replied, finally popping the lock and looking mightily pleased with herself for a moment, "we've got problem in the DarkVeil forest, and it appears you folks are the ones who are going to help me solve it."

"What makes you think we'll help you?" Ridley asked, not sounding too impressed with Jereez's suggestion. But then, no one she was about to let out of that cage was particularly impressed with it. Jereez contemplated him for a moment as she swung the cage door wide open but stood in the doorway so that no one could pass.

"You're right," she agreed with him, "I can't make you help me, so here's what I propose: I'll give you this, if you promise your support." Everyone's eyes immediately fell upon the object Jereez held up - the dragon's eye. She jiggled it in front of them enticingly.

"Mantonus just gave that to you?" Damon asked skeptically and Jereez cocked her head to the side

"Not exactly," she replied vaguely and quickly changed the subject, "do we have a deal?" Ridley watched the dragon's eye with displeasure. He was being cornered into doing something he didn't really want to become a part of, but there didn't seem to be a lot of choice at this moment in time.

"Alright," he agreed, already regretting it. Jereez immediately cheered.

"Alright then," she told the group, "let's get out of here before we're forced to make anyone eat dirt." She turned away from the cage door to lead them away from the encroaching battle and immediately found herself nose to chest with someone tall wearing a large concealing cloak. Jereez halted and looked up to see whom she'd nearly collided with only to find the stranger's hood was pulled up around their face so that they couldn't be seen.

"Hello?" she attempted in a half friendly, half questioning voice. There was a slight clacking noise and Jereez looked down to see the figure didn't have proper hands, but strange, horrible claws that sent shivers down her spine. She swallowed and looked back up to the invisible face slowly.

Before she could do anything else, the claws were closing around her throat and throwing her unmercifully into the bars of the cage behind her. Jereez groaned and slid painfully to the ground. She was quite certain she was now sprouting a strange rippling effect across her back from the indents the bars had left.

It didn't take Ridley long to recognise the figure.

"You!" he accused as he stood in the entrance to the cage, temporarily refocusing the cloaked figure's attention. Jereez moaned and dragged herself to her feet swaying.

"What do you want?" she interrogated the stranger almost drunkenly. Her eyes rolled around in strange circles for a moment, then righted themselves as the fae dust she'd just consumed kicked in and began healing the imp, and clearing her head, faster than was usual.

"I've brought you a messsssage," the figure sneered, "from your ssssisssster." He was only too pleased that leading an attack on the camp meant he'd have plenty of rebels to please his Mistress with. Heads would roll 

"Somebody obviously forgot to inform you what I usually do to most of my sister's messengers," Jereez threatened. It encouraged Elwood to raise his battleaxe in support. The dwarf had been waiting for a good battle.

"I have sssssomething mossssst of thosssse messssengerssss didn't have," the creature replied in a partially amused voice, hissing. It clacked its talons together in excitement.

"A speech impediment?" Jereez suggested mockingly.

"No," the creature replied and immediately reached into its coat. Jereez, anticipating the creature was reaching for a weapon, immediately pulled a knife into each hand and readied herself for combat. Instead, the cloaked creature drew out a small, sleek black feline that mewed pitifully. Jereez's eyes widened in shock and a crackling stillness filled the air between the imp and her opponent.

"It's a cat," Ridley commented, trying to figure out why Jereez was apparently taking it as a legitimate threat, "has anyone else noticed it's a cat?!" The cloaked figure enclosed its hands around the small animal's neck as though to crush it cruelly.

"You'll want to drop that," Jereez suggested darkly and glared furiously but the cloaked figure appeared unconcerned.

"It's a cat!" Ridley repeated incredulously. 

"It's her familiar," Damon barked hastily in a tone that suggested the thief shut his trap and do it quickly. Jereez and the cloaked figure were engaged in the beginnings of a show down, either that, or a rather long staring contest.

"We can't stand here forever," Jereez suggested after several minutes of nothing happening. The sounds of battle in the background where beginning to get closer.

"I can be very pattttient," the creature replied in a tone that begged to differ. Jereez's eyes flashed golden in anger and in that moment she took a quick glance across to the human mage, hoping the woman would get the idea. Jereez barralled forward towards the cloaked figure.

The stranger's claws tightened across the neck of the cat, squeezing another mew from it, but before it could do anymore to the poor feline, the black cat flew out from its enclosed talons talons and hovered a few metres away in mid-air. This was enough to distract Lauthal's messenger temporarily as Jereez threw herself into it, slamming her tiny frame against it and striking forward with her knives.

The metal blades rebounded forcefully, sending Jereez's arms jarring backwards as both imp and messenger went sprawling to the ground. Immediately Jereez leapt back to her feet in one swift moment, rubbing her swore elbows with a pained expression. She hadn't even scratched the creature.

As she looked down, she realized the cloak had fallen away from its face as they'd tumbled backwards, revealing cruel snake-like features. It was gray and scaly with a blunted nose and reptilian eyes. The creature hissed angrily, rose to its feet and began walking towards Jereez hungrily.

In fear, the imp stumbled backwards and began tapping into the multitude of knives she always kept hidden across her body, throwing them vigorously at any available part of the creature. Her effort seemed in vain, however, as those knives that hit its body bounced away harmlessly and it nimbly swayed to avoid those directed at its head as it encroached. Jereez was too concerned with her own problems to wonder what the rest of her party was doing.

Reaching for her last two knives in desperation, Jereez suddenly realized they were still lying somewhere around the tree she had pinned Ridley to earlier. For the first time in a while, she began to fear for her life.

Lauthal's messenger looked out victoriously and dropped its cloak to the ground revealing a horrible, thick scaly hide. It dragged its talons across each other sending a ringing sound that reverberated through the bars of the metal cage that Jereez was slowly being cornered against.

"This is sssilly," she said desperately, unintentionally adopting the messenger's hiss in her dread. If anything, it only made the creature believe Jereez was mocking it which it didn't really like. It glowered and its eyes vibrated a hypnotizing red, temporarily mesmerizing Jereez.

In that moment there was a loud thunk and the snake creature shrieked in pain. A whole row of similar thumping noises immediately followed, sending the messenger stumbling sideways, crashing violently into the bars of the prison cage and hanging on to it desperately as its body began to slide downwards.

Shaken from the hypnosis, Jereez looked up to see the elf lowering her bow and the human mage lowering her hands. Whilst Jereez had been preoccupied with the creature, the rest of the group had been retrieving their weapons.

From the back of the shuddering snake creature sprouted an arrow followed by a collection of Jereez's knives. The mage must have levitated them from their fallen position on the ground and directed them towards the creature. Apparently its belly was thick and protective, but it was still vulnerable from the back. 

The creature shuddered and hissed out its last breath slowly. Elwood stepped forward and, with all his might, brought down his axe beheading the vile creature. The snake head rolled and dead eyes stared up to the sky. The dwarf turned and grunted at the glances from the rest of the group.

"Just making sure," he explained, lowering the weapon. Jereez blinked, still washing away the mesmerizing effects of the thing's eyes. She was suddenly extremely glad to see a small black cat weaving around the legs of the female mage, Marina.


	13. The Lookout

The Lookout. 

A pair of booted feet were moving forward in front of Marina. Thud, thud, thud she imagined in boredom as she tramped along behind, too tired to lift her head often from the sight of Norda s shoes stepping forward. 

Quite honestly, she had nothing against walking, but today they had done enough of it, and she was exhausted. What's more, she couldn't understand why they continued to follow the short, brown-haired crazy woman the imp named Jereez. Now that they were released, and outnumbered the two thieves from the tavern, why didn't Ridley just take back the dragon's eye and leave the two with their own problems.

But when she'd pointed that out to him, Ridley had just seemed to think that now he had given his word to help, he wasn't about to go back on it, and while Marina wasn't sure she counted Jereez's persuasive techniques as giving one's word, she couldn't help thinking of how things might have turned out much differently if Ridley hadn't promised to help her when they had first met.

"How much further do we have to go?" she asked the group, and then couldn't understand why everyone threw her an exasperated look. She hadn't asked _that_ many times. Two or three maybe, or five, or maybe ten. She frowned. Well, they'd have to take a rest sometime soon. 

What's more, at the moment they were crawling their way up a tall, steep hill that worked one's thigh muscles a little harder than she would have liked.

The dark eyes of the black cat that was strung out around Jereez's neck blinked at her as the feline turned its head to look at the mage from where Jereez was walking up ahead. Jereez was a strange person, as was her companion, but there hadn't been many imps in Sumdall, so Marina couldn't tell if it was normal. Mostly Marina was still trying to figure out why the imp kept mumbling something about moving upwind whenever the mage was near.

"You'd like to know how much further," Jereez told her, waiting for the mage near the crest of the hill, "I'll show you." She waved a hand as a gesture for Marina to follow and began to weave her way through a thicker patch of trees than was on the non-existent path they had been following. The imp didn't smile, but she didn't frown either.

She led Marina for a short walk before finally coming to a halt beside a large bush and staring out past it thoughtfully as Marina caught up, and then caught her breath. Jereez pointed out across the top of the bush, and Marina realized they were standing on the top of a cliff, looking out across the wildness that spread itself across the land like a leafy green blanket.

"It's beautiful," she said in awe, and meant it. Brightly coloured birds flittered up from the forest top and called to each other through the warm rays of the sun. The sky was dotted with white fluffy cotton-wool clouds and there was a peaceful serenity here of a place untouched by man.

"You see that dark line?" Jereez pointed it out in the distance. Though she tried not to let it on, she was more than a little pleased that Marina, no matter that she was a human mage and smelt like one, had experienced a similar enchantment with the scene. This had been one of her favourite places once.

Marina nodded, watching the point Jereez had pointed out. It was not so much a dark line, but an area where the green of the trees suddenly became deeper than before. Other than that, that part of the forest did not seem so different from the rest. The other travelers came to stand behind the two as they looked out over the cliff.

"That s the DarkVeil Forest," Jereez explained, "or at least, where it begins. It's connected to this forest they'd be the same, if it weren't for the... other differences." She looked a bit disconcerted at the mention and refused to meet the eyes of the others. Only Damon knew what had stirred Jereez.

"What other differences?" Marina inquired, watching Jereez's reaction, who frowned.

"Well, firstly, DarkVeil is fae land," the imp clarified and paused momentarily.

"Secondly?" the elf, Norda, questioned from behind them, causing both mage and imp to turn to her temporarily.

"Secondly," Jereez repeated, "DarkVeil is said to be inhabited by the souls of the dead They say the fae have a connection with the dead that protects them, but that others who cross onto fae land become victims to the souls. Some believe the souls are hungry for flesh, or that they guard fae boundaries, others believe that only the fae possess the ability to communicate with the dead without being damage..." Jereez took one last look at the view, wrinkled her nose and turned away beginning to head away to lead the group on their descent from the hill. 

DarkVeil was not far, and they would probably reach it before nightfall. Then the hard decision would be whether to rest the night away outside of the creepy fae territory and risk losing ground on Lauthal, or follow the wicked Empress and run the risk that the rumours were true, as unbelievable as they sounded.

As she was passing the group, Damon suddenly held Jereez back and pulled her to the side while the rest passed on a little.

"Jereez," he said, leaning in a little and speaking in a low voice, "you didn't really mean what you said, did you? About the dragon's eye?" Jereez's eyes widened.

"Damon, what do you take me for?" she exclaimed, "I'm not stupid. It was the only way I could get them to come."


	14. Rising to Power

Rising to Power. 

"We'll have to abandon the horses here, Mistress," Raelis commented coolly and Lauthal snarled. She hated that he was right, the trip was about to become less comfortable than it had been to this point.

In all honestly, she couldn't understand what all those people went on about. So far the DarkVeil forest had been as uneventful, if not more, than when they'd been traversing the rest of the surrounding forest. They'd not come across a single fae or dead soul yet, and now they were nearing their destination, which was exciting, except that they were now faced with sheer cliff face that would need to be climbed.

She didn't pity the soldiers that would have to make such a journey dangerously, still clothed in the metal armour she had ordered them wear. It would be fun to watch their dismal efforts. A good way to pass the time as they hefted her up in a pulley mechanism. 

She probably could have used her recently strengthened powers to levitate herself, but why waste the energy.

"Up!" she commanded and a row of soldiers pulled heavily on the rope, lifting the wooden container Lauthal stood in on its journey to the top, where several men had already been forced to climb to in order to set up the pulley system for their Empress ascent.

The container began heaving up the steep slope jerkily, bouncing around like a mad dog and Lauthal screeched down at the soldiers pulling angrily, though the ride did not get much smoother regardless. Down below the ground slowly got smaller and smaller, more distant, until finally she neared, and then cleared the top of the cliff face. Several soldiers whom had been lazing around on the surrounding boulders immediately leapt to life with a series of guilty looks at being caught relaxing.

"Get me out of this disgusting thing!" Lauthal barked irritatedly, and decided these were the men she'd make sacrifice themselves first if there was trouble. They helped her out of the wooden container, a soldier bringing the small dog Pepita out, and Lauthal stared round the cliff top critically. It didn't look much to her, and right now she didn't see any dragons.

A moment later, just as Raelis head popped up over the cliff top, there was a loud screech and a massive body flew over the top of the intruders. Lauthal looked up at the creature, higher in the sky, as it flew around the next peak and disappeared.

"Raelis," she said stepping forward towards the cliff edge, "you've done well." A compliment from Lauthal was rare. Raelis might have had the time to accept it gratefully, if only Lauthal had not stepped upon his fingers, grinding them into the hard rock below and causing him intense pain. Letting go, and plummeting to be splattered across the ground below in pancake shape, was not an option.


	15. Those of the Past

Those of the Past. 

Ridley peered around the shadowed DarkVeil forest in concern. Every instinct in his body was telling him something was seriously wrong, and all of his senses were on alert. Around him, most of the others seemed jittery and on their toes too. Perhaps it would not have been so bad if it were daylight, but they'd elected to push on through the spooky Fae land in darkness and now that they were here, every single one of them regretted it 

"Tell me why this is worth it again," Marina whispered to Jereez as they creeped slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible. So far they'd met nothing dangerous, but there was always time to be wrong. Jereez leaned into whisper her reply.

"The Dragon's breath is a powerful force, if Lauthal gets her hands on it, she won't just be Empress, she'll be a reign of terror."

"I thought she already was a reign of terror," Damon suggested under his breath from behind them and received a dirty look from the imp.

"That s surprising," Jereez snapped back, "I didn't know you thought!"

"Shhhh! Ridley hushed their bickering, drawing the group to a stop. Norda glanced around the suddenly silent forest in her own search, feeling a similar sensation to Ridley. She was certain they were being watched.

"Does anyone hear that?" the elf suddenly asked, her super sensitive ears picking something up. They all stood as statues, pricking up their ears. Jereez's cat mewed in fright and bolted from her shoulders into the forest.

"Chase!" the imp cried, taking a few steps forward after her familiar, then stopping only a few paces later as the moaning Norda had picked up a moment earlier became audible to the rest of the group. It rose in intensity as they glanced around desperately trying to locate the source.

For a moment Marina was certain she had glanced a ghostly figure dodging from behind one tree to another out of the corner of her eye. She tried to convince herself it was nothing, that she was seeing things, but then they were everywhere, surrounding the group and flitting about in a circular motion so that the adventurers were confined and could not escape.

"I knew this was a bad idea!" Damon muttered.

The comment irritated Jereez, mostly because she agreed with it, to the point that she lashed out at Elwood the dwarf instead, as he raised his battleaxe, "You can't kill something that's already dead!" The ghosts continued to circle, not particularly threateningly, but not friendly either. These were no vague forms but actual ghost people, still dressed, in detail, in the clothes they had worn at death. Strange ghastly faces whisped by so quickly that their features could not be made out properly.

Suddenly, they stopped, and one lone figure streaked forward to pause, abruptly, before Ridley. It was a woman, with long hair that floated about her head as though submerged in water. She had a youthful face, though she would have been older than most of the adventurers. Her eyes searched Ridley's face neutrally then, for a moment, it almost seemed as though a small twinge of a smile tugged at the corners of her straightened mouth.

As quickly as she had come, the ghost woman fled back into the forest, but at the same time, the circle of ghosts she had once been a part of appeared to flee, melting away into the darkness and leaving the group of adventurers standing alone in confusion. Something important had just happened, but what?

"I don't feel dead," Jereez said, directing her comment to Damon. But its sarcasm was lost as her own confusion leaked its way into her remark. They looked around for a moment, and then Norda lifted a hand in the direction they had previously been heading in.

"Look," the elf told them, and everyone turned, their eyes following the direction of her hand. Stepping lightly through the trees ahead was a petite character, as small as Jereez but looking perhaps even more fragile than the imp. The woman that headed towards them was not a ghost, but real living flesh. She had wild long blonde hair and bright sky blue eyes. She wore a filmy pink material, though her feet were bare and almost seemed not to touch the ground. Behind her, glittery butterfly wings vibrated, shimmering despite the lack of sun.

"Fae," Jereez murmured gently under her breath. She was as awestruck as the others, completely entranced by the beauty of the small creature drifting towards them. As the fae drew near, a small black cat peered out from the undergrowth, and stepped out to thread its way through the petite woman's legs.

"You have been fortunate, travelers," the fae addressed the group as she also came to stand in front of Ridley, the way the feminine ghost had done earlier, "those of the past find few who trespass on our land to be justified in their purpose."

"Then we might continue?" Ridley asked, after a short pause. If his interpretation was correct, then the ghostly display a moment ago had been in search of their reason's for trespassing on fae land, though he was still unsure how the ghosts were related to such an investigation. The fae watched his eyes with a hint of light amusement.

"You may," she agreed, "the Dragon's breath must be protected, and not only for the reasons you believe. Dragon's breath of the most ancient dragon it is the armour, the protection between this place, and the realm of neutrality. Without it, it would only take the frequent misuse of powerful magics," she eyed Marina, and then Jereez up as she said it, causing both to look uncomfortable and perhaps a little offended, "to tear a hole between realities. Through the breach would every detail that is not impartial be sucked, into nothingness would disappear every emotion, every feeling, every idea, thought, belief and value, until very beings themselves drifted away into the void.

"Here, the Fae have always protected the physical manifestation of this magical force, but something has arrived with the imp Empress that frightens us, and those of the past. Even if it did not, she collects such an army around her that many might perish and we would still not reach her at the center. For the first time, we find we are helpless to do our duty." She was suddenly so beautifully sad, that not one of the travelers doubted that they would do their all to help the fae.

"What did she say?" Elwood whispered hoarsely to Norda beside him, not completely following the fae's speech, but wishing to help regardless.

"She said now is the time to use your weapon," the elf replied calmly.

"We will stop her," Ridley agreed with the fae, and Jereez began to wonder, a little bitterly, when the human male had suddenly become leader of the group, able to make decisions for the rest of them. The fae smiled softly, then pointed to her left, over the treetops to a far away mountain-top.

"There lies the distant peak, where the old one resides, and where the cruel Empress now intrudes. But," she held up a hand to stop anyone, particularly the enthused Elwood, from immediately hurrying off towards their destination, "let me provide you with a gift first."

The fae held out a hand upon the silent agreement to accept her offering, "It will require the eye of the dragon." Everyone immediately perked up and turned to look at Jereez.

The imp shrugged, "I don't have it," she explained, "I let Damon steal it from me a few hours ago back at the cliff view outside of DarkVeil." When everyone looked at her strangely, she added in her own defense, "I'd planned to take it back later!"

Damon hesitated, and looked red-faced. For one thing, he'd secretly enjoyed believing he'd finally managed to best the imp. The delirious smirk that had been plastered across his face the last few hours immediately drifted away. With a terribly sad and regretful face, though not one that inspired as much pity as the fae's, he dragged the giant gemstone from his pouch and held it out to her. There was a pained expression on his face as the fae took it gently from his reach.

For a moment she held it, stroking the gem thoughtfully, then the fae turned and bobbed down to the forest floor and, clearing a space, planted the dragon's eye firmly into the ground.

"Now why didn't I think of that!" Jereez said mockingly, and then had the impudence to look insulted when one of her co-travelers elbowed her in the side. Perhaps because it was, strangely, Damon.

A moment later, there was strange rumble of thunder, and then a bright beam of light pierced through the dark forest, even though it was nighttime, to shine down directly upon the gemstone. Everyone watched in amazement as a moment later a ghostly figure suddenly appeared in the beam of light and held up its hands to study them strangely.

Ridley and Marina gasped, Norda raised an eyebrow and Elwood looked confused, as were Jereez and Damon at the responses of the rest of their adventuring group. The two of them couldn't understand what was so special about this particularly ghostly apparition.

"Snails!" Ridley took a step forward towards the beam of light containing the confused looking Snails. He was still wearing what he had been the day Ridley had last seen him, with Damodar, as the evil man killed Ridley's long-time friend and partner.

"He doesn't look like a snail," Jereez said in confusion, but was promptly ignored. Ridley went to take another step towards his friend. Snails looked up and opened his mouth to say something, but at the same time, the beam of light streaked downwards into the gemstone lying in the ground. For a moment the dragon's eye pulsed brightly, then dimmed back into its original state.

"I don t understand," Ridley said, turning desperately towards the fae. She bent down and plucked the dragon's eye out of the ground, then held it out to him.

"Neither do I," she admitted, "but those of the past tell me the dragon's breath may be able to restore your friend. Take this now, and keep watch of it carefully." Ridley nodded and took back the dragon's eye, full of wonder and hope that he might, somehow, have a chance of resurrecting his dead companion.

"I told you to trust me," he told the dragon's eye affectionately, turning it in his hands. 


	16. Loss of Breath

Authors notes: This is just a very big thankyou to everyone who has been reviewing so kindly, you guys are my heros, keep reading! J 

Loss of Breath. 

Lauthal walked around the giant sleeping dragon, eyeing it up. It opened an eye and blinked at her lazily, apparently not considering the small imp a big enough threat, or a big enough meal, to be bothered with.

Well, the imp Empress thought, one of those was about to change.

She waved a hand and suddenly a large crowd of petrified soldiers roared forward, tossing a vast long chain net across the creature. It reared up angrily to bat the annoying pests away and sending a soldier or two flying into the cave wall. Another group of soldiers immediately darted towards the chain, adding their own strength to the group trying to hold the huge monster down and the oldest dragon that ever lived spurted fire in its rage, toasting the men in front of it. They ran shrieking from the chains, screaming and rolling across the floor to put out the fire.

Lauthal simply stood by calmly and watched the debacle.

"Please," she encouraged the creature in amusement as it was slowly dragged down to the floor, "do that again." The dragon snarled and snorted a puff of smoke. Lauthal uncrossed her arms and stepped towards the now subdued dragon that eyed her furiously.

"No really," she continued confidently, "go on. Open your mouth... blow fire… Give me the dragon's breath." The last line was said darkly, evilly. Lauthal leered across the creature. In her mind, it had put up a pitiful fight. She hadn't expected this to be so easy. Actually, she'd fancied sacrificing a few more men before she won. The dragon glared and Lauthal s soldiers attached the edges of the great chain net to large metal pegs that they'd been hammering into the ground around it. 

The whole thing was magically imbued, of course. Now that she had the creature, Lauthal was not about to let it get away. 

"Leave us!" she barked to her idiot soldiers, who had completed their task. She'd envisaged her acceptance of the powerful dragon's breath as an intimate activity. Just her, and the ancient animal she would slay to get it. The soldiers gratefully fled the cave, and likely the entire mountaintop, though Raelis hesitated before leaving, once he'd received a glare from his mistress.

Once they had gone, Lauthal ran a hand across the snout of the creature, stroking it and the dragon shook its nose violently to dislodge the offending palm. Lauthal looked temporarily offended, then leaned in eye to eye with the beast.

"I'd much rather do this the hard way anyway," she confessed to it, with a smile. Lauthal reached a hand beneath the dragon's chin to lift it, but at that moment there was a loud yell from the cave entrance. She turned to see six figures standing in the entrance, only two of which she recognised. Her sister, and the idiot bard that played at that pitiful tavern. Of the other four stood an elf with raised bow, an oversized dwarf holding his battleaxe ready, a human male with his sword out and a female human mage looking angry and defiant. Which was about all a human mage was good for.

Lauthal realised she must have been right regarding her soldiers. They had fled the mountaintop, else these fools would not have been able to get so close to her. No one moved.

"If you think you're going to save the beast, you're too late," Lauthal bluffed slightly. Then, before anyone else could react, she jerked the dragon's head up roughly and sliced a large knife across its neck violently. The dragon immediately roared in pain and reared up, accidentally making it difficult to target the evil Empress in the process. One of the metal pegs holding it to the floor popped up and the creature sprouted flame at the ceiling again.

It was enough for Lauthal who, using the powers she had acquired as Empress, began channeling the power of the dragon's breath from the dying creature, a look of exhilaration on her face.

Norda finally managed to target the imp, but her arrow simply flew right through Lauthal as she grew in strength and power. Elwood and Ridley began to dart forward towards the Empress, but were forced backwards by the desperate flailing of the huge dragon.

"Do something!" Marina shrieked, and raised her hands frantically to send a small fireball careering towards Lauthal. She was shone in light now, her hair dancing as though alive.

The fireball smashed into her, knocking her back temporarily and disconcerting the imp. Angrily, she raised her own hands and reciprocated the event. This time a large, angry, vicious fireball raged its way towards the human mage. Marina open her mouth to exclaim and at the same time Ridley shouted loudly, recognising the danger the mage was in. But the flame was too fast to react to and it smashed into Marina, sending her flying backwards, crashing violently into the wall behind her and sliding to the ground painfully.

"No!" Ridley cried, racing towards the fallen Marina and leaning over her in shock. Her eyes were closed and her breathing ragged, as though she were taking her dying breaths. He shook her desperately; he couldn't lose another friend, not now, not Marina! He cared about her so much. Her should have told her more often but since they'd got here, they'd just been so busy and... he should have told her more often.

Behind him, the great dragon was falling to the ground, sounding its own dying cries and moans. It landed with a thump and Lauthal smiled as she absorbed the last of the dragon's breath. It tingled threw her blood and across her skin deliciously. Slowly she opened her eyes, seeing the world in a new light. Lauthal's pupils flashed golden, then faded back to their usual blue. She smiled, and knew she was all-powerful.

"No," Ridley echoed when Marina would not respond, this time more angrily. Raising himself, he turned to face Lauthal, an angry fire blazing in his eyes. Lifting his sword, he charged at Lauthal, bringing his sword within an inch of her face.

Lauthal looked at him in surprise, a hand raised, holding the sword away from her with her power. A bead of sweat ran down her face with the effort and she wondered in shock how a mere human was able to be so powerful against her, now that she had the dragon's breath. 

With a final desperate push, she used her power to throw him away from her. Ridley landed with a thump a few metres away from Marina and the others who were gathered around the mage.

"You are different," Lauthal said strangely, speaking of Ridley, her eyes glinting wildly in the dying light. She looked thoughtful, "I must ponder this." Then, before the rising Ridley could attack her again, she blinked away, leaving the cave behind.

Ridley stalked furiously over towards the empty place where Lauthal had once been. His anger and pain were greater than words.

"Ridley..."

He would hunt down that vile creature that dared call itself an Empress .

"Ridley..."

And slaughter it in a thousand different ways, a thousand times over.

"Ridley!"

Finally he turned to face the person who'd been calling his name. It was Jereez, who was leaning over Marina from behind the mage's head.

"I think I can help her," the imp told Ridley gently, when she finally got his attention. Immediately he stepped towards her, calming, and bent down towards Marina, watching her for any signs of life. She was still breathing softly, but it would not be for long.

"I'll need your help," Jereez said, looking at him and holding out a hand for Ridley to take it. She was about to attempt something that was perhaps beyond her abilities, and would require the power of another to channel through her. But it would be worth it. For some reason she liked the mage, and she'd never really had a female friend before.

Ridley gave Jereez his hand and she placed her other palm across Marina's forehead, concentrating on the movement of healing energies from Ridley, to herself, and then to the female mage. Everyone possessed such energies, if only they had the ability to direct them correctly, as few did. She felt a hand on her shoulder but was concentrating to hard to tell who it was.

Everything she had, she poured into the dying mage, and then, by magic, colour came back to Marina's face and she drew a long breath in. Immediately Jereez let go and fell back exhaustedly. Marina opened her eyes, and couldn't figure out why everyone was standing over her, staring.

Everyone was so busy watching the mage, that they didn't notice the imp that had saved her shimmering, then flickering behind until Damon, who'd been standing behind the imp, gave a startled shout. Jereez's image was rapidly fading in and out of existance, an event that was unlikely to be healthy.

"She's overdone herself," Damon barked, dodging to catch the toppling Jereez, but as she reached the point where she would have connected with his arms, Jereez disappeared completely. On the ground where Jereez had been standing, at Damon's feet, was a small black cat the familiar that Jereez called Chase. It sat and looked startled.

"Too late," Damon said unhappily, peering down, "she's reverted back."

"Reverted back to what?" Marina asked dispassionately, sitting up, "what happened?" Something about her was missing.

"Isn't anyone going to help her?" Damon asked, picking up the cat, which struggled desperately within his grasp though he did not notice. But before anyone could reply, a soft singing voice filled the air and everyone turned towards its source.


	17. Fae

Fae.

Over near the dragon was the fae they had met earlier. She walked alongside the great body of the dragon, dragging her fingers gently across its form and singing a song softly as though it were a lullaby to put the dragon to sleep. The dying dragon quivered at her touch.

"We failed you," Ridley suddenly realised, as the fae came to the head of the dragon the nearest end to where the group stood.

"No, you did not," the fae disagreed in a glittery voice, stroking the head of the dragon, "you cannot fail us when you try your hardest."

"But we did not stop the Empress from taking the dragon's breath," Ridley replied sadly. He was overwhelmingly happy that Marina alright, but also terribly horrified at the possibility that it was too late to matter now anyway.

"It is not yet too late," the fae told him, as though she had read his mind, "you might still recover dragon's breath." She was strangely serene, considering the circumstances.

"How?" Ridley hesitated as the fae stepped forward and drew Ridley's sword from its sheath.

"Eye of the dragon?" she asked gently, and this time received it with no hesitation. Taking the two, she stepped back towards the dragon. For a moment a look of concern did flash across her face, as she held the dragon's eye up to the hilt of Ridley's sword, but then it washed away and she bobbed down beside the dragon, dipping the blade of the sword in the dragon's blood that pooled around its front half.

"From the power of one, to the other," she murmured, and as she did so, a small spark of electricity crackled its way over the dragon's body, across the surface of its blood and up the blade of the sword, causing the dragon's eye to once again, flare out brightly. When the flash had dimmed, sword hilt and gem had fused together to form one. The dragon breathed out its last breath, and great reptilian eyes slid into a dead gaze. The fae stepped forward and returned Ridley's sword.

"You hold the source," she explained, "return the dragon's breath to the source, and restore the balance of this world. Use this blade to slay the Empress." As fae, she was sad that it had come to this, but there was no other choice.

Ridley nodded slowly and accepted back his sword, then the fae turned and began to make her way back around the dragon.

"I can help you no more," she added as she went, and began to sing her lullaby song again.

"Wait a minute!" Damon suddenly perked up, "you can help her." He was referring to Jereez but it was too late, as he looked up and realised the fae had gone. Her song echoed around the cave for a few moments longer, then died away.

It looked like, for now, Jereez was to remain in feline form. 

The cat gave Damon a disgusted look.


	18. But I do

"...But I do." 

"We have to go after her!" Damon said, rising after the fae, "they have fae dust, it will give her the power to..." The feline he'd been holding - Jereez, finally managed to get out of his grasp and leapt to the ground, stalking away from him with her tail in the air.

"We don t have time," Ridley argued, stopping the bard, "we have to stop that Empress of yours before a breach occurs." 

"Or we could do nothing," Marina suggested unconcernedly, also standing from her previously seated position. Everyone looked as the mage as though she'd suddenly sprouted a second head.

"What?" Ridley asked, stupified.

"I believe a breach has already occurred," Norda confirmed, watching the mage carefully as Marina sniffed and looked around the cave almost boredly.

"That only makes it worse," Ridley replied, partially horrified. Sure, they'd saved Marina from death, but her emotions were slowly being sucked away into the void of the neutral realm, and he couldn't guarantee that it was much better than death.

"The fae dust," Damon reiterated stubbornly, but while everyone looked back sympathetically, each one knew that even if their loyalties had not lain with Ridley, it was his course of action they would have agreed with.

"Fine," the male bard told them through gritted teeth, "I'll go myself," and began to stalk off in the same direction the fae had left deeper into the cave. Oddly, he didn't even take the small black cat with him. Perhaps he automatically assumed it would follow on its own.

"I guess we'll have to go on without him," Ridley said, and was about to continue until Norda interrupted.

"Wait," she said, "let me speak with him." When Ridley nodded in acceptance, she began to thread her way after the bard. She found him not much farther into the system of caves, staring angrily into a pool that had formed inside a large cavern. His own reflection glared back at him.

Norda cleared her throat and sat down next to the bard, crossing her legs rather gracefully considered they were armoured to the knees. It must have been a part of her elvan blood. Damon looked irritated and stirred away his image in the pool.

"I know you care very much for Jereez," Norda told the bard as she relaxed herself. She was about to be sly, and Damon could sense it.

"Foolish imp," he muttered, in some sort of vague effort to guard against it. It was like knowing you were going to lose an argument before it began.

"Let me see if I've understood this correctly," the elf continued, "you held the dragon's eye for several hours, in the belief that no one knew you'd taken it, and yet you still followed us, recognising that at some point, someone would realise it was missing and you would be forced to get it back." Damon looked dumbfounded at the suggestion, but ultimately, it was correct. He could have bolted with the riches, but he hadn't.

"Jereez may not know the importance of that, but I do," Norda told him, "there will be time to help the imp later, but if we do not stop the Empress, and repair the breach in time, there may not be a world to help her back to." Damon sighed and finally turned to look at the elf.

"I've always hated it when an elf is right," he admitted, "and more often than not, they are... We'd better go, we're wasting time." Norda nodded, not taking any offense as none was intended, and accepted a hand up from the bard. They began to make their way back to the main chamber, to rejoin the others and resume their quest.

As they went, a small black cat stepped out from behind a large boulder and blinked its feline eyes lazily.


	19. The Gruntmaster

The Gruntmaster. 

"I do not like this place," Norda commented as the group weaved their way through a busy tavern on the outskirts of the city. Usually such a comment might have come from Marina, though now she appeared indifferent. They almost seemed to have done a complete circle since their arrival in this strange land though the tavern was not the same.

"I know," Damon agreed, stroking the cat that had stretched out across his shoulders, "but the assassin's guild is our best chance at sneaking into Lauthal's tower." He said the words assassin's guild in a much softer, quieter voice than the rest. This tavern may be the front for the secretive guild, and most knew it, but any members nearby would not appreciate the claim being publicly vocalised and would quite likely take to rearranging some faces in retribution.

"Are you certain they'll help us?" Ridley double checked, following the bard through the rambunctious crowd. If the Devil's Grin had been busy, this place was worse. If the Devil's Grin had been loud, this place was easily worse. And if the Devil's Grin had been bustling with a dangerous looking crowd, this place was definitely worse.

"Lauthal's business deals with the assassin's guild is well known, so they should know her castle well. Plus, the assassin's guild does not work out of loyalty, they work out of money."

A roar of approval rang out to the right of the group where a great bunch of burly men had gathered to eagerly greet a weary bruised man as he left an enclosed circular area to rejoin the crowd. Inside the enclosed space a second man lay passed out on the floor, bloodied, as a few others looked on dispassionately. Everyone made their best effort to ignore it and concentrate on their current mission.

"We don't have any money," Elwood pointed out, grunting.

"They don't know that," Damon hastily counteracted. 

"Well, what if the Empress pays them more?" Norda said intelligently, though Damon didn't appear as concerned as he didn't even skip a beat in replying.

"Don't worry, I have a plan, I know what I'm doing," he leaned across the bar without meeting the bartender's gaze but glancing around the room suspiciously. 

"I'm not here for the ale, if you catch my drift," he addressed the bartender, who grimaced and nodded towards a dark, but graying, haired man seated in the far corner between two standing burly looking guards. He did not appear overly shifty, like a thief, but twistedly cruel and mean. He had a handsome enough face, but there was something cold and incisive in his eyes. He was watching another fight in the circular arena with amusement and, deceptively, appeared unaware of the goings on in the bar around him. 

"That was a little too easy, wasn't it?" Norda said but Damon appeared delighted and headed eagerly towards the fellow that had been pointed out to them, the others trailing along behind. Damon seated himself at the same table as the man and sat there silently, the black cat around his shoulders jumping down. Damon had recognised it was not up to him to initiate conversation. Here, only the guildmaster called the shots.

After several long minutes of watching the fight, the guildmaster finally spoke, without looking at Damon.

"I m still trying to decide why you think I would help you," he admitted coldly. His information network must be very good, if he were to know already the reasons for their being here. Damon smiled grimly.

"Consider the long term, Tokius - is it, I believe," he replied and the assassin guildmaster finally turned to look at Damon with those piercing eyes that often made normal folk feel increasingly uncomfortable. Even Damon twitched a little under the gaze.

"The long term?"

"That s right," Damon encouraged, "so you know why I'm here, then you also know Lauthal has the dragon's breath. Now that she has that kind of power, do you really think the Empress needs your help? Or that she'd be willing to pay for it? Let's be honest, whilst the Empress is relatively weak, you've got business she'll pay you to spy on and annoy her sister. But not anymore, she'll probably handle the situation personally, from now on." Tokius appeared to consider the suggestion thoughtfully with his deep dark eyes.

"Perhaps we can make a deal," he suggested cunningly to the thief, "I'll help you, if you will perform one other task for me." He stroked the side of his face with a long pointed index finger.

"Anything," Damon agreed, leaning back with ease in his chair. He felt victorious he'd known his powers of persuasion were good, but he'd still expected this to take a little bit longer. In mild amusement, Tokius looked towards the fighting pit where another warrior was currently being named victor. 

"One of you must fight in the pit," he named his terms. 

"The pit?" Damon looked towards the circle where yet another combatant lay moaning on the floor, blood gashing from an open wound. Suddenly the thief felt a lot less sure of himself.

Tokius nodded, "If you win, I sneak you into the castle. Hell, I'll even restore your little animal back to its imp form. If you lose..." He purposely didn't say what happened then. Damon hesitated, trying to think of something he could use as a bargaining chip to get out of such an action.

"I'll do it," Ridley finally agreed from behind him, before Damon could think of something. Damon felt slightly agitated, but at least it saved him the recognition that he probably wasn't going to think of something anyway.

"No, I'll do it," the dark-haired thief disagreed with a sigh, rising from his seat. After all, he was the one who had made the bargain.

"What the hell," the assassin guildmaster said in amusement, "let them both into the ring. They'll need it... in a battle to the death "

"To the death?" Damon queried in a more fearful voice, but was immediately hurried forward by the guards, with Ridley, towards the ring. It was too late now to change one's mind. Tokius rose up out of his chair and lifted a mug of ale in toast.

"Friends!" he addressed the rough crowd of the tavern loudly, and everyone was immediately quiet, "today I have for you some very special entertainment. Two of our most, esteemed, guests have agreed to fight, in the pit, the Gruntmaster!" There was a roar of excited cheers at his announcement, and everyone in the bar lifted their own ales to toast the occasion, most of them immediately downing the entire mug. Tokius seated himself once again with a pleased look upon his face.

"The Gruntmaster?" Ridley questioned in disbelief, half addressing Damon as they were pushed into the ring and the door slammed shut behind them. They looked around the empty ring together.

"Don't worry," Damon hissed back, "it's just some name they attached to one of the warriors. He's probably some thin, weedy guy light on his feet and quick with his weapon though. But there's two of us, and only one of him." He was partially trying to convince himself.

"There s only one rule in the ring, fellas," Tokius called to them from his table, positioned so that he'd get the best possible view of the action in the ring, "kill the opponent before you leave the ring." At the far end of the ring, where it met the wall, a large metal gate began to slowly rise. Damon and Ridley peered at it in concern as the crowd began to cheer loudly again.

"What if they do try to leave the ring?" Marina asked Tokius detachedly, sitting herself in the empty chair Damon had left behind and leaned toward him slightly to hear his reply whilst keeping an eye on the ring. The rest of the group continued to stand away, their emotions keeping them from wanting to have anything to do with the unfavourable assassin guildmaster.

"Oh," Tokius replied, his lip twitching in amusement, "you don't want to know what happens then." He continued to watch the ring, and at that moment, the gate at the far end finally finished rising. There was a noisy grunt and then, to the surprise of Ridley and Damon, a large cyclops carrying an equally giant spiked club stepped out into the arena. He swung his wooden club and roared angrily, to the great excitement of the tavern crowd.

"Thin and weedy..." Ridley repeated back to Damon incredulously. 

"Or," Damon agreed, worried, "Gruntmaster could be big, and hairy, and smelly... Serves me right for thinking assassins could be original," he added under his breath, then, "Well, you know what they say! They bigger they are, the harder they fall!" Immediately he drew his sword with a sigh and charged the giant beast. 

Whatever Damon had thought he'd be able to accomplish attacking the ogre in such a fashion, he had no time to achieve it. With one swing of his enormous club, the cyclop smashed his weapon into the thief and sent him flying into the opposite wall of the ring, knocked unconscious.

It was easily enough to bring Ridley to his senses. Suddenly it was just him, and the giant creature, mano o mano, or perhaps, mano o monster.

He gulped and brought out his own sword. It rang loudly as he did so, the dragon's eye fused with the hilt glowing brightly. He had to think about his advantages, Ridley told himself. Ogres were generally big, and dim, and slow. They relied on brawn, pure strength, and size. He had to outsmart, and probably outdodge, the creature. It swung its club again, at him, and Ridley hastily ducked out of the way.

He lashed out at the legs of the cyclops, cutting a gash, though not one that was particularly deep. The ogre roared in pain and followed the thief around with his club, not quite fast enough to smash the thief.

Ridley, puffing, wondered how he was going to keep up with all this and began to realise it was more likely that the giant would wear him out first. At the far corner, Damon moaned softly as the ogre's club thwacked violently into the wall nearby whilst the creature tried to squash the annoying bug darting around his legs. 

This was getting them nowhere. The crowd roared with laughter at the antics, and Tokius pursed his lips in twisted pleasure. Somebody in the crowd suddenly shouted out a word excitedly, and then everyone in the tavern was chanting it "Blood! Blood! Blood!" Norda looked around in disgust, though Marina was not worried, and even Elwood grunted displeasedly. The people in this tavern not only put up with, and even encouraged this practice, but they actually enjoyed, with intense enthusiasm, the sight of another's pain.

Just as it looked like Ridley was tiring, there was a terrible screech and something small and furry pitched itself, flying through the air, at the head of the creature. Tokius stood up in concerned surprise as a small black cat ravaged the single eye of the cyclops, all the while shrieking strange feline obscenities. 

The ogre, in shock, fumbled backwards and then, stupidly, raised his enormous club and sent it crushing forward towards the tiny creature. This, of course, turned out to be a big mistake, as the cat happened to be plastered across the cyclops' face at the time.

At the last minute, the Jereez/Chase feline threw itself from the ogre's face to land, with perfect grace, in the circular ring. The cyclops' giant club smashed into his own face with immense force. For a moment, it looked extremely stunned, and then it fell backwards, landing with an amazing thump having knocked itself unconscious.

Ridley, realising he was no longer being pursued, looked at the cyclops in surprise. Raising his sword over the giant, he looked towards the guildmaster, hoping he would not have to complete the deed. Tokius growled angrily.

"Enough!" he roared through the stunned silence of the crowd, and continued through gritted teeth, "let them out of the ring."

"But you said the only rule was that you couldn't leave witho..." Marina began innocently but was immediately cut off.

"I changed my mind!" Tokius snapped. Marina looked confused, as though she couldn't understand why, as Tokius waved an arm to the guards who opened the ring and herded the dazed Damon and victorious Ridley from the arena. One of them stepped forward to try and pick up the cat but it snarled and hissed, lashing out at him violently, and he opted to leave it instead. There was an audible groan from the crowd those who had obviously believed the Gruntmaster to be a sure bet, and had now lost their money, and the chance for blood.

"Are you going to help us, then?" Ridley verbally pushed the assassin guildmaster as he was brushed forcefully in front of Tokius angry glare. Damon was dumped in a slumped position outside the ring, still trying to bring himself to awareness.

Tokius seethed for a moment before replying, "I do not go back on my word!"

"But you just changed your mind about the..." Marina began again.

"Silence!" Tokius roared, stopping her, then seated himself back in his chair more calmly, he continued, "I'll have one of my men lead you through the hidden passageways of the castle in the early hours. In the meantime, I suggest you get some rest. Lauthal will not simply give away the Breath, after all that she's done to acquire it." 

Ridley nodded, and was glad that he had won, though he was not certain that saying it was all due to a cat made him appear a greater fighter.

"I believe you owe us something else," Norda added from nearby, referring to Tokius promise regarding Jereez. Tokius looked at the mangled creature in distaste.

"Ah yes," he said and ushered forward a small maidservant, carrying a round wooden bowl. She placed the bowl on the ground, next to the cat, who immediately began eating the light powder inside, getting some stuck on its whiskers. The cat's form shimmered for a moment, and then Jereez was standing behind it, not looking particularly impressed. The cat continued to munch down the fae dust.

"How do you get to trade with the fae!" Jereez accused the guildmaster, who smiled wryly and shrugged, apparently not wishing to divulge how he came across his own supply of fae dust. Jereez gave him her own distasteful look and turned, hurrying toward the drooping figure of Damon behind.

She kneeled over him, her face an expression of intense anxiety, "Are you ok?" Damon blinked and tried to rise his spinning head. He could feel one of those terrible hangovers coming on the type that only happened when one had been drunk enough the night before, so that they couldn't remember what they'd done, or when one was hit straight on by the oversized bommey-knocker of an odorous one-eyed giant. 

He looked at Jereez through bleary eyes, the world spinning sharply to the right as he did so, "I'm fine, as if you care." Jereez bit her bottom lip lightly and lifted the thief's chin with her fingers, and ran a small hand across his face gently, so as not to cause him pain from the cuts and bruises inflicted by the ogre's club.

"Of course I care," she told him tenderly and then, to the bard's immense surprise, pressed her lips to his. For a brief moment it occurred to Damon that Jereez must have overheard his conversation with the elf Norda, back in the cave, when he'd thought they were alone, but any concern about it quickly died away.

"How touching," Tokius commented in disgust from the table, standing again, and promptly stalked off into the tavern.


	20. Deceived

Deceived!

The snide goblin messenger snickered and clawed his long, thin fingers at the air hungrily.

"Empress," he addressed Lauthal, and bobbed forward enthusiastically in recognition of her superiority, "Tokius sends these gifts, in congratulations of your recent success." He looked at her hopefully over the chests of gold coins and extravagant jewelry. Lauthal merely sneered at the display.

"I don't need any of this," she told the assassin in loathing. The messenger's eyes widened.

"Ah, but I come bearing a message also," he told her excitedly, dancing along behind the Empress as she swept over the chests, inspecting their contents, "your sister, and her friends, Tokius is bringing them into the castle." Lauthal immediately stopped what she was doing and moved to look out the window.

"Really," she mused, a smile rising on her face, "tell Tokius I am most grateful." She did not turn to the messenger. With a bob of acknowledgement, the messenger reached greedily across to take a chest, but was quickly interrupted.

"You can leave those behind," Lauthal ordered him, still not turning from the window. The goblin hesitated for a moment, then bobbed again and hurriedly exited Lauthal's chambers, an intense look of sadness on his face at losing the opportunity to pinch more gold.


	21. Enter the Tower

Enter the Tower. 

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Ridley pressed their guide, looking up the dark hallway that was supposed be located beneath Lauthal's tower.

"Oh, believe me," the goblin guide snickered, "Tokius _wants_ to help you into the castle." He ran his fingers through the air wildly as though he were drumming on it, "just follow this corridor up to the end, and go up the flight of stairs. You'll come out in a trapdoor near the main hall."

"You're not coming?" said Marina, as always, without emotion. The guide wiggled his fingers again.

"Oh no," he replied in shock, "I've no disagreement with the Empress, and even if I did, I've not the stupidity to go sneaking about her castle in the hopes of attacking her . No offense intended, of course." He had one of those sly, slippery voices that identified him immediately as untrustworthy. 

Jereez managed a false smile, "Of course." The goblin darted back up the corridor, the way they'd come, leaving the group to continue alone. They followed the path on, Ridley in the lead with a torch and, as the guide had said, came to a staircase. 

Carefully now, Ridley looked up it before handing the torch to Norda and beginning his ascent. At the top, he searched the ceiling with his fingers until he found the crevice where the edges of the trapdoor was, and pushed forcefully against the door. When nothing happened, Elwood appeared beside him and offered his own strength. There was a creaking sound of cement moving across cement as the dwarf pushed upwards, and then the trapdoor crept slowly upward.

The dwarf peered up through the gap. The trapdoor must have been located in one of the passageways in the castle, as it looked out across a t-junction of corridors ahead. Elwood bobbed back down temporarily as two figures, in monk-like costumes, walked past, down the other corridor then, when all was clear for a few minutes, he pushed the trapdoor lid back and leapt into the corridor, reaching back down to help Ridley and the others up.

"Which way now?" Ridley whispered as they accumulated in the corridor, but no one, even Jereez, seemed to know.

"Split up," the imp suggested. There were only three directions to go, and six of them, so that should make two to each corridor. At the same time, there was a shout from the other end of the corridor, the opposite end to the t-junction, and suddenly that end was filled with angry looking soldiers racing towards the group. 

For a moment the adventurers looked indecisive. Run, or stay and fight? Then Damon drew his sword.

"We'll hold them off for as long as we can," he told Ridley and then Jereez, looking them both deep in the eyes, "you must stop Lauthal." They were the two obvious choices. Ridley, who's sword had the power to return the Dragon's breath to its rightful place, and Jereez, who's evil twin sister had been the bane of her existence for so long.

Ridley hesitated again, unwilling to leave Marina to the mercy of the oncoming mob, until Norda put a hand on his shoulder gently.

"She's safer with us than with the Empress," the elf acknowledged, and Ridley was forced to admit she was right. He and Jereez began to hurry towards the t-junction. They looked up and down the corridor unsuccessfully.

"You go left, I'll go right," Jereez told the thief. She was, of course, volunteering herself to go the same way the monks had earlier.

"What if one of us meets Lauthal?" Ridley asked, already half in agreement. Jereez considered it quickly.

"Yell," she replied, "yell very loudly." They both nodded in agreement, and dashed forward in their respective directions. There was no time to waste.

In the corridor, Lauthal's dangerous mob of soldiers finally met, with a clash, the other four, each of whom honestly believed this might be the last fight they would ever see, and only one of whom, understandably, didn't really care.


	22. Return the Rebels

Return the Rebels! 

As Jereez raced down the corridor she'd chosen, desperately trying to find her twin and stop her, a loud but distant boom suddenly reached her ears and the entire tower shuddered, causing her to slow for a moment and look about. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught something unusual outside of one of the windows and, moving hurriedly across to it, looked out.

In surprise at what she'd seen, Jereez hastened a little further down the corridor until she found a door leading to an outside balcony that she'd been looking for. Leaning over the edge of the balcony, she peered down to confirm her sighting.

Outside, at the base of Lauthal's tower, was an entire army standing by, ready to charge. At the giant decorated double doors, a large collection of people were racing forward again with an enormous battering ram held between them. The building shook once more as it connected with the door. The rebels!

At the front of the waiting army, Mantonus was riding a brown horse along the lines, revving up the excitement of the crowd. This was it. This was the moment everything they had been fighting for was going to pay off. 

Suddenly the elf turned and caught sight of Jereez in the tower and smiled at her. Jereez felt her heart skip a beat in relief. Hopefully the rebels would deflect some of Lauthal's soldiers away from her friends in the corridor. In fact, it was looking like the soldiers might find themselves fighting on two fronts. There was hope yet!

Eagerly she leaned out across the balcony and yelled to the elvan leader, "I didn't think you'd make it!" Mantonus smiled again, and tipped the robin hood-like hat he was wearing to her.

"You know me," he called back, "and my timing." At the same instant the doors to Lauthal's tower buckled and burst open and Mantonus turned his horse, leading the charge of his rebel army, who roared as they raced towards the broken doors.

Jereez couldn't wipe the smile from her face, and immediately set her mind back to the task of finding her sister. But she turned to find a figure standing behind her. Jereez looked up into the blonde craggy hair and dull eyes of her sister's underling Raelis. She took a step backwards, into the corner of the balcony, and realised she had no way of escape.

"There are already too many imps in this castle," the blonde-haired man threatened. Desperately, Jereez reached for a knife and thrust it towards the man, but he saw her and caught her wrist, twisting it cruelly within his grasp as he pushed her out of the corner, back into the centre of the balcony and causing Jereez to cry out in pain.


	23. Showdown

Author's note: With all the great feedback, I'm getting inspired to write the next fanfic. (I've had this finished for some time and have been posting it at my leisure.) Heart attacks? Well, I'm not quite done with cliffhangers yet...... *insert wicked laughter here* But don't worry, the end is near...

Show-down!

It did not take Ridley long, darting down the correct hallway, to find himself racing down the centre of the red carpet laid out across the hallway to Lauthal's room. Past the large columns, and her oddities, past the giant stuffed bear and oversized guillotine and into the centre of the circular end of her room. For a moment he thought it was empty, as he looked around, until the blonde Empress spoke up from where she had been standing, contemplating at the window to his left. She had blended into the scenery so perfectly.

"You've come on a fool's mission," Lauthal addressed him, turning away from the window. Her eyes had faded away into pure blackness, and stared back at him coldly. 

"You," Ridley accused angrily, slowing down, "you nearly killed my friend. She is what she is now, because of you." Lauthal smiled cruelly at the suggestion.

"And what is she?" the Empress pressed victoriously, "worse than death? Do tell me." Ridley reached for his sword. He'd much rather end this now. He could already feel the anger from the dragon's cave welling back up inside him.

Lauthal raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Have it your way." She sent another fireball, this time full of black fire, screeching forward towards the thief, forcing him to throw himself sideways and roll back up into a standing position, drawing his sword as he did so. The fireball smashed into the giant stuffed bear, setting it on fire.

"You know," Lauthal spoke up, walking out confidently from behind her couch and brushing her fingertips together producing sparks, "you and I are a lot alike, both with strange, untapped powers The only difference is, I'm beginning to realise my potential."

Ridley held his sword out towards the imp, "We're nothing alike." Lauthal laughed, but it was losing its musical quality.

"No, I suppose not," she agreed, changing her mind, though whether she'd really believed it to begin with was debatable. This time Ridley held his position as she walked towards him. 

"You might have been able to defeat me when I first had my power," the imp told him as she walked towards him, "but I'm too strong for you now." Temporarily, her eyes flashed blood red and, drawing close, Lauthal pushed his sword to one side, her palm against the flat of his blade, her mind exerting her will upon him so that the thief could barely move.

She leaned in close to whisper in his ear, "You know, it's come to my attention that my most valued assistant, might not be so valuable as I had previously thought. I might just be looking to replace him." It was, however, enough to break the spell around Ridley and he slashed his sword violently at her, cutting deeply into the imp's arm and hitting bone.

Lauthal screeched and drew back, the flesh in the area she'd been wounded in already knitting over, healing itself.

She growled angrily, "Enough," and a sword materialised in her other hand. Lauthal thrust it forward and Ridley defended, the blades singing unnaturally as they met.


	24. Pathetic Imp Whining

Pathetic Imp Whining. 

"I've had enough of pathetic imp whining," Raelis continued darkly as he held Jereez away from him, "get me the dragon's breath, that's not good enough, do this do that " Her twisted her arm again painfully and Jereez gasped.

"If you're so fed up," she told him, wincing and trying to block out the pain, "then why do' t you kill _her_." Raelis drew her closer to him, bridging the gap between them.

"Oh I will," he confirmed nastily, "I spent years searching out the ancient myth of the Dragon's breath, went half-way around the world only to find it right back where I started. That power should be mine, not some ridiculous she-witch's....

"Right now, she'll be fighting that little friend of yours - she'll win of course, but she'll be weakened by the end of it, and that's when I'll strike," his smirk became an angry twitch, "in the meantime, I'll rid myself of my other main source of competition. Guess who that is." Raelis leered over her.

"Me!?" Jereez gasped, faking surprise, "I hardly think I'm competition." But at the same time, she thrust forward with her free arm that she'd maneuvered one of her knives into, cutting Raelis a deep gash into his side. Distracted by the wound, he loosed his grip on her wrist and Jereez managed to pull herself away, holding the bloodied knife up between them threateningly.

"Apparently us imps aren't the only ones who are good at whining," she growled at him, "if you wanted the power of the Dragon's breath, you would have been smarter to simply not tell my sister you'd found it in the first place." Raelis echoed her growl and Jereez leapt at him with her knife, hoping to finish it now.

Raelis lifted his hands and exerted his own mage powers to hold the imp out of weapon range. He lifted one hand causing the knife Jereez was holding to twitch agitatedly, trying to pull itself from her grasp until she could no longer hold it. The knife flew into Raelis palm and he pushed Jereez back against the balcony edge, holding the knife to her throat.

"The Dragon's breath is my future," he hissed at her, and raised the knife to strike.

Suddenly, his eyes bulged out and Raelis gaped in shock. Blood welled up at the corners of his mouth and he pulled himself away to reveal a knife another one of Jereez's, protruding from his stomach. He looked at her, wild-eyed.

Jereez, panting, took hold of the knife once again and hefted Raelis up, which would not have been possible for her small size if he wasn't so thin and bony himself. Raelis didn't even make a sound as the imp lifted him over her shoulder and flung him over the balcony.

The mage crashed down to the ground at the base of the tower and was immediately swept over by the rampaging rebel army swarming towards the castle doors. For a moment, Jereez could still see his face and lifeless eyes - as Raelis always had been, staring back up at her, and then that, too, was gone, crushed beneath the crowd.

"Good luck with that," Jereez said over the balcony, and swept away without another glance.


	25. Victory

Ok, I think I've kept you in suspense long enough. ;)

Victory.

Lauthal and Ridley continued their battle, but the Empress was obviously winning. Ridley was tiring and yet the imp had not even worked up a sweat. She looked at him with intrigue through her pitch black eyes.

"You don't want to kill me with that," she warned Ridley, and indicated his sword. The thief looked confused. What was she talking about?

"What do you think will happen to the soul you have stashed away in the oversized gem of yours? That it will be free and alive again," Lauthal chuckled, "Unlikely. Given the circumstances, it is more probable that you'll end its existence for good. There will be no chance of saving your friend." Ridley hesitated, horrified that he might have to make a choice to sacrifice Snails. She could be lying, she _had_ to be bluffing. But he couldn't know that for certain.

"The end is drawing near," she told the thief, swinging her blade at him once more and cornering him near the guillotine, "don't worry, your head's not worth keeping." Lauthal thrust her sword violently at him with the intention of knocking the thief back into the contraption. At the same time she released the catch to let the great, hungry guillotine blade crash down.

But Ridley ducked the swing, despite his weariness, falling back across the castle floor. Lauthal's sword kept going, and the guillotine rang down, catching the blade within its grasp. The Empress frown twitched and she tugged hard at the sword hilt to free it from the guillotine, unsuccessfully. She pulled at it again in agitation. She had the greatest power of all time, and yet she couldn't drag a damned sword from where it had stuck!

Ridley, recognising his chance, and perhaps his only one, scrambled up from the floor to his knees and drove his own sword forward, plunging it into the imp's stomach. Lauthal gasped and dropped the fight with her own sword, stumbling backwards. It just wasn't possible, how could she...? How could he...?

Slowly and painfully she dragged the sword from her belly, dropping it, and pressed hand to the wound, blood welling up between her fingers. She looked up at Ridley in shock. Bleeding she was bleeding. It was slippery in her hands. Ridley just stared.

All of a sudden there a strange, crackling misty energy engulfed the imp, draining from her body, pouring down the blood dripping from her fingers, across the plush red carpet and into Ridley's sword. The Dragon's breath was returning home, the power whisping away from the Empress. It flickered along Ridley's blade until it reached the dragon's eye at the hilt, and exploded into a flash of bright light.

The explosion forced Lauthal across the room and caused Ridley to wince, bringing an arm up to protect his eyes from the brightness of the light. When it had dissipated, his sword lay in its same position across the floor, but the dragon's eye had separated itself, and lay shattered in a million pieces across the carpet.

"I'm sorry Snails," he told the mess sadly, closing his eyes briefly in pain. Again he'd lost his friend.

There was a snuffle from behind him and the thief turned to see Marina there, on the floor, with Elwood and Norda standing around her. Rising, Ridley went to her hopefully. He didn't know when or how they'd gotten there, and he didn't care. If only Marina would be alright. He didn't think he could bare it if he lost her too. He leaned over her and shook the mage gently.

Immediately Marina opened her eyes, and blinked them as though from sleep. She looked from Ridley, to Norda, to Elwood and blinked in surprise.

"What's everybody staring at me for!?" It was a wonderfully emotion-filled sentence and all three of the friends standing over her broke into smiles. Ridley pulled the mage up into a hug.

"Don't worry," he told her, "it's not important," then he saddened as he drew back, "but we lost Snails." Everyone looked downcast.

"Woah man," a familiar voice said from behind them, "I might be covered with dust, but I'm definitely right here." They all looked up in surprise to see the other thief, brushing himself off and trying not sneeze, standing a short distance away in the middle of the broken pieces of the dragon's eye. Ridley's face broke out into a smile.

"Snails?" he asked in disbelief, stepping towards his friend.

Snails held his arms out, "It's all me pal!" and they embraced, slapping each other on the back. A moment later when they each realised everyone was watching them, the two thieves pulled back awkwardly.

"Yeah buddy, it's good to see you again," Ridley said in embarrassment and patted the other thief on the shoulder in a friendly matter.

"Likewise," Snails muttered and they both tried to look natural.


	26. Goodbye Dear Sister

Goodbye Dear Sister. 

It was at this moment that Jereez finally completed her circle around the tower and entered the room at the far end. Stopping at the sight of the destruction, she noticed a body on the floor to her left. It was Lauthal, her breathing slow and raspy, her hands cupped at her waist where blood was flowing from a wound.

Lauthal saw Jereez standing there at the same time.

"Sister," she called breathlessly, and Lauthal bobbed down beside her twin, "you must, help, me." Jereez watched her twin for a few moments. This was a moment she hadn't thought would come. Here, her sister the weakened one, and begging for her help. All the times that Lauthal had tried to hurt her flashed through her mind at high speed.

"A perfect sister," she told Lauthal slowly, "would be able to forgive, and forget, and heal you." Lauthal tried to smile thankfully through the pain.

Jereez hesitated sadly, "but I am not a perfect sister, and I cannot forgive, and forget I'm sorry," Lauthal's smile had faded as Jereez continued, "Even if I wanted to, I could not help you, because I do not have the power. Perhaps if you had not limited my supply of fae dust all these years - but you did, and I am weak. I doubt there is any dust here for me to take now, but even if there were, I would not be able to get to it in time to save you." She looked about to leave, then changed her mind.

"You have to tell me one thing," Jereez asked her twin, "why?"

"Why?" Lauthal echoed in pain, mixed with confusion.

"Why," Jereez said, "why all this time? Why all this pain? I cared about you - when we were young." Lauthal drew in a ragged breath and somehow managed to laugh bitterly, then she reached out with one shaky hand and drew Jereez's head closer to her own.

"Because," she said, in a more dark, unpleasant voice, "you had so many friends... everyone loved you - I was just the pretty one." She fell back breathless and Jereez drew in her own breath and nodded. At least now she knew. This time when she rose, she continued on, and walked away leaving her sister behind.

From under the tablecloth of a nearby table, a small fluffy dog whined pitifully and crawled its way out across the body of its owner, bringing its head down sadly.

At the entrance to the Empress tower the rebel army roared victoriously as they defeated the Empress soldiers.


	27. Epilogue

Epilogue.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Ridley asked as he stepped up onto the horse as the rest of his comrades were already seated. Jereez smiled and shook her head.

"I have my bar to look after," she told them, taking a hold of Damon's hand as he was standing beside her, "and a bard to keep out of trouble." Though no one said anything, they though it were more likely the other way round, but Damon tried to look unimpressed anyway and rolled his eyes instead.

"We wish you the best of luck," he told Ridley and the rest of the group from Sumdall. Ridley nodded, and decided not to say goodbye. In this world, who knew, they might meet again.

"Give the mages in Parthax a slap on the backside for me," Jereez told Marina, who laughed glad that now she could, and the group turned their horses to ride away. They were headed for Parthax, a city to the north that Jereez had told them was a hive for mages, philosophers and those with scientific minds in this region. Now that they had no dragon's eye, they had no way of knowing if they would find a way back to their real home, Sumdall, in Izmer, but if help was to be found anywhere, it was with the mages.

Jereez pulled a small red glinting object from her pocket and held it up in the palm of her hand for Damon to see.

"What's that?" he asked, studying the thin sliver of dragon's eye.

Jereez smiled, "Well, I couldn't let it all go to waste, could I!" Damon, too, grinned now.

"Are you going to sell it?" he asked. Even one sliver would probably fetch a large sum of money.

Jereez pondered it for a moment, "No, I don't think so. I don't really need more wealth." She looked up at the bard and he laughed. 

"What are you talking about, you always need more wealth." Damon pulled her into an affectionate hug. 

In the distance, their friends from Izmer stopped their horses to make one last farewell, waving to the new friends they'd made. Then they rode on and disappeared from view.

"You know what I'd like to know," Marina told Ridley as they rode, "is what happened to the Dragon's breath once it left the Empress where did it go?"

Ridley shrugged, "I guess we'll never know."

In the mountains of DarkVeil, deep in a crevasse within the dragon's cave, there was a slight cracking noise and then the tiny cry of a newborn. A small dragon pulled its way out of the egg it had just hatched from and looked up to the night sky. It fluttered its small wings gently before finally gaining the strength to fly upwards.

In the dark shadows of the trees, a cloaked figure watched the adventurers from Izmer leaving. It had long, poisonous looking talons, but when it drew back its hood, a bizarre mixture of snake features, and those of Raelis, stared back. The reptilian eyes had a dull, dead look within them as it blinked.

THE END


	28. After Notes

After Notes 

This is a selection of notes I had written for the idea of my 'imps' and 'fae dust'. It's not more story, so it's only useful if you're interested in reading more about those concepts from my fic. 

If you decide not to read it, you will probably still want to read the bit at the end about my next fic....... ;)

IMPS

So, what are imps? Imps are fallen fae, their ancient ancestors having given up on the more noble fae life of justice and honour. Over the centuries, the lessened use of fae wings ultimately resulted in the modern wingless imp. Their closest cousins include pixies (mischevious souls but still winged) and leprechauns.

Admittedly, most of the rumours of imps being mischevious, often irritating creatures are usually true. Yes, they live and breathe mischief and excitement, without it, imps became fidgety creatures. And honestly, a fidgety imp is much more annoying than a mischevious one.

It should be added that imps, like humans, are not necessarily good or bad, but spread out across a continuum. Some are more evil than others, just as some are more good. It is possible to find an imp so morally correct that they will sacrifice their mischevious needs to do what is right, just very.... rare. However it is just as rare to find an imp so innately evil that they would cause intentional fatal, or potentially fatal, harm upon another creature purely for its own entertainment. They like to ruffle feathers, not pluck them.

In their proper form, imps are very small creatures, knee high to a human, usually with dark skin and ears pointed like an elf, but also shaped in a wavy pattern down the ear's curve. 

Despite their personal differences, there is one thing common to all imp-kind. That is, all imps have a single important familiar. The importance of an imp's familar cannot be stressed enough. Familiars provide imps with the ability to shift into the creature's bodies for a very short period of time, to increase the chances of successfully escaping when caught out, or where there is the prospect of being caught out if one isn't fast enough, in the mischevious act, whatever it might be. This means imp's familiars are usually small creatures, most popular include cats, small dogs and rats or mice. Rabbits, chipmunks, grasshoppers and dragonflies are also not unusual. The second commonly used function of familiars is the channeling of their power to make the imp appear as large as a (very) short human. This also has benefits in disguising one's appearance against those with low opinions of imp-kind. Many imps spend the majority of their lives in this state.

But here, friend, I will divulge an imp secret. Despite their often irritating activities, imps are generally kind-hearted people. If you're a smart enough person, it should not be difficult to convince them to help you in your adventures - just don't expect to get rid of them too easily once they've given you assistance.

Fae Dust.

Fae dust is the staple diet of all fae. Without it, their magical energies drain leaving them weakened and, while it does not directly kill them, a fae without fae dust is like a vampire without blood, wasting away to a shadow of their former selves, driven dangerously by the lust for food and, ultimately, set upon a self-destructive path. It is theorised that they also become fragile, and more susceptible to disease, in such a condition. Because imps are fae descendants, they also require the consumption of fae dust.

Fae dust, however, is created only by fae, who keep their secret method well hidden. Even imp-kind have forgotten how to make it, forcing them to acquire the expensive dust through trade with the fae. The fae themselves do not ask an outrageous sum for the dust, however they are usually particular in who they deal with, and purchasing from anyone else is almost too costly to be a practical alternative. 

Fae dust looks similar to sherbet, and comes in a variety of colours. Many magically endowed creatures, especially high class wizard, like having a small quantity for use in various spells.

NEXT FIC

Yes, it is true, I've already started writing the next fic, and I'm willing to divulge a few small things about it. It will take place in Parthax, where the group uncover a terrible plot regarding the Order of the Serpentine. Three new characters will be Maecyn, a bumbling Mage, Thmirce, his female gnome servant and Sudarna, a female assassin. Also, the Raelis snake creature will make an appearance. You'll have to look out for it, but to help, it will probably (not definitely) be called "Order of the Serpentine" or something similar.

Ta ra all!

Deej


End file.
